Will of Fire!
by Himura Shingen
Summary: AU Naruto storyline. Naruto has now two abilities from the Kyuubi: Immune to fire and the ability to control his fiery chakra. The story starts from the begining and will follow the original storyline, but with a Goku like Naruto personality. [NaruSaku]
1. Chapter 1

Summery: This is a rewrite of the original Naruto story, with a Naruto with altered powers and personality. He is strong and wise when it comes to fighting, clueless when it comes to life matters, in others Son Goku personality (Dragon Ball). His powers come from being Kyuubi's vessel, the ability to control and to be immune to fire. Pairings: NaruSaku? SasuSaku?

**

* * *

Will of Fire**

Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto, so I don't own him.  
Legend: "": quote, "_italic_": thought, _italic_: Japanese word, (): translation/explication, underline: techniques (check the end for invented techniques).

Chapter 1: Meet Uzumaki Naruto!

Our story begins in the country of Fire, a land covered by lust forests and magnificent valleys. At the heart of this land was situated the village named Konoha, known for their courageous and fierce shinobis and the heart of country's military force. Although militaristic, it was a beautiful passive village, where peace, justice and unity were at the core of their beliefs and held above all. It was led by the Sandaime Hokage, the head shinobi and leader of the village. It was surrounded by a rocky mountain by the south on which was sculpted the faces of their Hokage's, a great waterfall by the west and two dense forests by the east and north.

However, all was not well in the village, it was true that the villagers were kind and caring, but there was an exception that is if you happened to be a boy named Uzumaki Naruto. Twelve years ago, the village was attacked by the greatest demon of all, Kyuubi no Youko, the god-demon of Fire and in order to save the village the Yondaime Hokage sacrificed his own life to seal him in a new born child. That child was Naruto. Yondaime's final wishes were for the boy to be treated as a hero, but the villagers thought of him otherwise. They were a very proud people and had lost a lot of relatives during the event. What made them angrier was that they felt guilty about being unable to anything when it had happened. It was the first time they felt so helpless and it made them feel weak. So to part with that weakness and remorse they put all their hate towards Naruto, who they considered as the demon itself. Thus from birth Naruto lived a miserable and lonely life, which was constantly in danger, so much that the Sandaime Hokage, who retook leadership of the village due to the death of his successor, was forced to decree a forbidden law to protect the boy's identity from the children of his age. Thus all adults who knew about his secret could no longer transfer their hate to their children. It would give the boy an opportunity to grow up with the same privileges of others of age. However, Sandaime had underestimated his own people, as it still didn't stop them from making Naruto's life a sorrowful one. He lived under their constant glares and hate, ignored or ousted by his peers, denied from friendship and recognition.

* * *

Over the years, those punishments had dramatic effect on the blond haired boy. He never understood why they hated him so much. He figured it was because he was an orphan, after all in this world everyone picked on them. They had the least chance of retaliating and were the most vulnerable. He knew the only way to break away from his current situation was to gain their acknowledgement. Thus he made up his mind to become the next Hokage and not just any Hokage, one that will surpass all others. It had become his dream and sole purpose in life. Unfortunately, he discovered pretty quickly that his wish will be hard to earn. Not to mention that the glares were getting even harder to suppress, it was so bad that he decided to become a mischievous prankster to gain some attention. It was his counter for the glares as now he knew they were glaring at him because of something he did, rather then being the innocent victim. 

At the age of 6 he was admitted at the shinobi academy, much to the dismay of the villagers. The first two years were tough. He received no aide and was isolated in class, as the other students were told to avoid him. Not to mention that his prankster attitude usually got him kicked out from classes with earned detentions. The third year began studying the history of the legendary Yondaime, who instantly became his idol. It was also the only subject where he fully paid attention in class. The story about the great man, whose academic records were similar to his that is the last in class, gave him a new inspiration. Now he knew that he did not have to showoff in the academy to become a Hokage. This new revelation was great new for Naruto, who had realized that the teachers always complicated his life when ever he got good at something. Now he could simply do the bare minimum in classes, average in exams, pass academy and then start amazing the villagers, just like he did. Yondaime was also responsible for Naruto's _nindo_ that is a solemn promise that he would never go back down from his words, no matter what, which also happens to be Yondaime's one.

He also knew that skills didn't drop from the sky; he needed to improve by himself secretly. Thus from the age of 9, Naruto started his secret training, where Naruto would spend his nights self-training like a mad dog in a secluded training field. There alone he would work out intensively on his taijutsu and physical stats. He didn't have much to train in ninjutsu as he was only given a few ninjutsus at the academy, which he had mastered and unlike the other kids he did not have the benefit of getting some from relatives. So it was basically an extreme physical training, which included running, shuriken and kunai weapons training, weight training and of course his personal taijutsu style improving. Since no one was willing to help him learn a true art, Naruto developed his based on his instincts which resembled fox like attacks. It was an unorthodox style, but since his body felt comfortable in it, he didn't mind. He also always wore 100 pounds of extra weight on him, which didn't include his suit which was much heavier then normal outfits.

These intense exercises lowered his status as the class clown, as he was too tired to play them. He had realized at an early age that he had a lot of stamina and he used it to its limits, so much that he was virtually exhausted during class times, which he usually used to recover his sleep if the class was boring. For Naruto, anything that did not involve new jutsus, physical training or Yondaime was considered boring. So it was no wonder he was the last of the class and often considered stupid. He really wasn't dumb, just that he needed motivation in order to learn, which he never received and thus he hardly ever paid any attention to class. The teachers did not care anyway they wanted him to fail. They were always cold on him, except Iruka but even had his bad days. In fact, by the time of his graduation Naruto would only prank around when it was Iruka's class, because it was the only place where wouldn't get immediately kicked out of the class. Naruto also never showed his progress in taijutsu or physical training, because he hated venomously the teacher who happened to be Mizuki, the teacher who hated his guts the most. He knew that if he showed too much, in other more then basic taijutsu, and mediocre agility, that bastard would give him some rough tasks to perform, in order to grade him lower. Hence, in the academy his stats were mediocre in taijutsu, speed, and strength, low in ninjutsu and zero on the rest apart his stamina which was high. While, in reality, his physical stats were high along with his taijutsu, average ninjutsu, mediocre in seals and intelligence and still zero in genjutsu.

* * *

Naruto was also the creator of his personal brand of ninjutsus. The orioke (sexy centerfold) was one he had created after realizing that men tend to have a weak spot for naked girls and it had become his premier jutsu to knock out Sandaime who happened to be a big pervert. However, he also had two other jutsus and one of them was still in development. 

The first was a taijutsu attack he calls janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo). He came out with this jutsu after realizing that he tends to release a lot of chakra when he is angry, now Naruto doesn't really know what chakra did apart that when he did release that amount it made his physical attacks much more powerful. Thus he came out with this combo, which he planned to use on his opponents during those tense moments. It is shear luck that till this day not a single person made him mad enough to receive the janken rendan.

The second one was much more devastating then first. He accidentally came upon this ability at age 10. While training a complicated series of shuriken and kunai exercise which he saw in class, which he couldn't perform it correctly. Naruto got so mad that he noticed that his chakra turned into a flame-like aura around him, this amazed and scared him at the same time. He realized that if he concentrated his anger he was able to create this effect on his right hand, which would get covered in flame. This led to the creation of his first fire jutsu, the okaen (inflame). A jutsu where he would charge his right fist with this flaming chakra, which in reality was fire but Naruto was oblivious since he didn't realize he was immune to the element, then slam the fist on the ground creating a blast of flames that surrounds him and engulfs everything around him within given radius like a fiery shockwave. The first time he tried it the blast was so huge that he scared himself, as he had burned everything within a five meter radius. After that day, he never practiced this attack within the forest, as he hated the fact that the attacked had burned the trees that surrounded him, whom he considered his confident as he used to only tell them about his sorrow. He also knew that the jutsu was a hazard, since he had no control over it and in most likely case if he used it anything surrounding him will most likely be burned to ashes. The last thing he wanted was to be labeled a pyromaniac, so he promised himself to never use it till he completely mastered it. Unknown to him that chakra happened to be Kyuubi's, which he releases unconsciously when he is in extreme rage. It was part of the side-effects gained due to caring the demon that is the ability to release fiery chakra at will, as well being immune to fire attacks and having a larger reservoir of chakra do the chakra merger between his and Kyuubi's.

That being said Naruto hardly trained either of the two jutsus, mainly because his knowledge of chakra was low, so low that he never distinguished that the chakra used for janken rendan, which was his and okaen, which was Kyuubi's were totally different and his chakra control was even worse. So considering that he had to learn how to control his chakra and thus making sure of what range and intensity he wanted the okaen to be, it would take him a lot of years to complete it. Meanwhile, he was happy enough with the janken rendan that alone was enough to put someone in a painful position.

* * *

At the age of 12, Naruto finally graduated to a genin and that also on the red line. The reason, as always Naruto never paid attention in class, to make it worst, he had totally forgot it was exam day and had trained late the night before. So he was drowsy and when Iruka, asked the class that the test would be on bunshin (clone), Naruto was sleeping. When he woke up, he asked the guy next to him what jutsu they would be doing and he wanting to see Naruto make a fool out of himself told him to perform kawarimi (body substitution). So as usual, Naruto entered the test chamber and since it was Iruka, he pulled the orioke to give him a bloody nose. After getting scolded by him, he performed the kawarimi which really irritated the chuunin teacher. Iruka was about to fail him, but Naruto realizing he had been tricked begged for a final chance on his knees, which the teacher finally granted him. Naruto then completed the correct jutsu and passed the test, but given that it took him three times to perform the jutsu and to mention his numerous other mishaps over the years, he was ranked last in the class. He wasn't much disappointed by the results. After all he always thought it was going to be a fight between him and Shikamaru, his in class sleeping partner. Now he clearly had the underdog status and can use it to start owning his doubters, just like his idol did. 

The villagers were shocked to hear that the demon-boy had passed, but were at least happy that he ended up being the last in class, that made them feel superior to the demon. The only one who wasn't surprised was of course Sandaime, who had kept a watch on the boy throughout the years with his crystal ball and he was aware of Naruto's little secrets. He saw that although Naruto had a childish mentality, he was responsible of his actions, by keeping his concerns out of the reach of his doubters. Indeed if the villagers knew he had inherited such power, they would have imprisoned him and treated as a hazard. Instead they now think of him as an idiot-demon-brat who barely passed as a genin, boy are they going to be in for a treat when this boy lights up. Sandaime was also the first to guess that Naruto was immune to fire, after seeing him practice okaen a year ago. It was clear to him, because such a technique would be the strongest at the epicenter which happens to be where Naruto is standing, thus he had to be immune to fire or he would be the first to be incinerated. He made a note to tell about his powers to the jounin who would take in charge, after he had accepted him. He wanted Naruto to master that jutsu and to do that the jounin would have to train him on mastering his chakra control, thus give him the final key indirectly. He decided to not alert Naruto about his secret powers yet since that would certainly prompt the boy to ask why he had them, which would lead to the Kyuubi discussion, which he felt the boy wasn't ready for yet.

* * *

Unfortunately that very same night Naruto would learn about the Kyuubi due to the incident that unfolded when Mizuki attempted to steal the scroll of forbidden seals. He succeeded his plot by disguising himself as Naruto with henge, him being a fervent Kyuubi hater knew that the villagers were most likely to suspect him, than any other candidate, while he could easily escape with the scroll and its contained jutsus. Just like he assumed his plot worked, as the guards fooled by him, put out a search warrant for Naruto, while he got away. Unlucky for him however, his escape route happened to be by the secluded training field 51, were Naruto was secretly training for his upcoming coronation. Meanwhile, Sandaime had also changed the warrant quickly as he happened to be watching over the boys training in his crystal ball. So everyone was back on Mizuki's trail, they would arrive to late however, because by the time they found him, he had been beaten into a bloody pulp and the first recipient of Naruto's janken rendan. They were also too late to stop Mizuki from revealing Naruto about the Kyuubi, which was the reason why he got the pounding of his life. Upon arriving there the shinobis lead by Sandaime found Naruto sitting with his head down on his knees the scroll of the sealing tightly tied on his back and a barely breathing bloody Mizuki a few meters to the side. Realizing the tense situation, Sandaime ordered caution and went near the boy. He realized that Naruto was crying quietly, which was quite acceptable given what was told. Never in his 12 years did he ever felt this much grief, everything made sense now. They treated him badly because they considered him as the monster that was trapped inside him. Sandaime seeing that he no longer posed any danger ordered the others to leave both of them alone. The group silently withdrew with taking Mizuki with them. He was on his way to the interrogation squad and would most likely face the utmost punishment for not breaking one but two forbidden crimes. 

"I know this information is a very painful one, especially considering what you have been trough for all these years, but know that Yondaime never wanted it to be a punishment for you. He thought the villagers would treat you like a hero considering you have given your body to become a prison for the demon and thus protected the village from ever getting harmed by it. Unfortunately, people aren't as sympathetic he thought they would be. So if you want to blame anyone, blame me for not being able to upheld the world he thought he left you in", said Sarutobi.

"So he really is in me… Tell me, will I … will I become him? Isn't that why people hate me? They fear me, because they believe I will become him", asked the boy.

"Naruto, you shouldn't believe everything people say to you. First of all, he is a full fledged demon fox, you are a human. That is like comparing dogs ands cats, there is no way you will ever become him", responded Sarutobi.

"Then why? Why do they fear me? What did I ever do to them? I stay away from them as much as I can. I never hurt them or acted anything like a monster and yet I am still showered by their hatred", asked the boy.

"It's not your fault it's because people are dumb. They hate the fact that they were powerless when it happened and now simply let their fears of being powerless get the best of them. You are simply their victim nothing more. If you weren't here they would probably put it on someone else. Its how human nature is, we aren't perfect. We fear what we cannot understand. There is also another reason, but I don't think you need to know that now", explained Sarutobi.

"No tell me everything, I don't want anymore secrets. I had enough of all the secrets, they never aided me, so what is the point of keeping them?" yelled the boy.

"Naruto that secret was put so that you get to have a fair treatment from those of your generation. Sure the adults would still hate you, but there is always a chance that if their children did not know, they would allow you to prove yourself before judging you. So if you follow the dream you set up for yourself, you may one day regain what was taken from you. As for your first request, fine I will tell you. You see you are what we call a Jinchuuriki. There have been many others throughout the Five Shinobi Nations who have a demon sealed in them. They were made as weapons for wars as a person with sealed demon would possess the ability to use its powers. But that power has a price to pay, the person usually turns out to be unstable and mentally disturb. In other words, they become a menace to their own people. You however are different from them for some reason", explained Sarutobi.

"So that is it then, not only am I forsaken to be their object of hatred for the rest of my life, but I am also a weapon of war. Oh and to make it better, I got a 50 chance to either get them to recognize me as myself or become an unstable menace to society. Isn't life just great", mocked Naruto.

"No Naruto, you are not a weapon of war. You are far different then them. They tend to be possessed by their demon and are born with the demon in them, you are not. I don't know what Yondaime did but whatever he did, it seems that your demon has no power over you, even though you seem to be able to use its abilities. Well more like your own abilities developed as a side-effect of being the prison barrier for Kyuubi. You already started to experience that power, it is the one that awakens when you get angry", explained Sarutobi.

"Of course, that flame-like chakra, it must be his. So all this rage I feel is from him, this is his rage isn't it? No wonder it feels weird every time I get angry. I guess he tries to use that to use me as his tool, so in order to stop him I must control my anger", decided the boy.

"Not quite, like I told you earlier your powers are mysterious, because you are one of a kind. From what I see, that rage is yours not the Kyuubi's. Think about it, if that rage was his, do you think he would trying to help you train or would he simply rather go and use your body to kill? So it cannot be him, but if it was your rage it is understandable. You have been hiding your pain deep inside you for a long time and that is bound to come out sooner or later. So the power Kyuubi gives you is activated by your anger now because you can't control it yet. Anger is related to hot-temper and heat is Kyuubi's power. So theoretically, the more you will gain control of your anger and your power the less anger it will take to activate it", said Sarutobi.

"So how do I control it, because I am somewhat confused by what you said. It is true that I seem to release this thing with my anger. It is also true that I seem to be able to concentrate it on my right hand by concentrating my anger there, but when I use my jutsu I have no control over it", asked the boy.

"Ah you mean your okaen? Yes I have noticed that, but that is easily fixable with the right training, the problem has nothing to do with your ability. I think the best approach is that you consider this power like your chakra, but a heated version. I will tell your sensei tomorrow on what to train you to fix that little problem on your jutsu. As for how to control your power, well for the moment I suggest that you do try to work on controlling your anger by concentrating it at one point. It will indirectly work on controlling your anger and your ability to release easily. I am not sure yet, but it seems like your power takes two things to work correctly", replied Sarutobi.

"Hey, how do you know about okaen? I thought I kept it under close guard. Erm, how about telling me now and the teacher can help me if I still don't get it. Wait what is the other thing?" kept questioning Naruto.

"Patience little one, I know it isn't your strong point but you will need to have it to learn that thing. You really didn't think you could hide a jutsu from me could you? I can see everything, maybe you will understand what I mean by that one day if you can replace me. I will tell you one last thing for tonight. You seem to have two abilities as far I can see: the ability to draw fiery chakra and immunity to fire. Now how about handing me that scroll you took from Mizuki", said a smiling Sarutobi.

"Oh you mean this? What's in it anyway, that bastard gym teacher seemed like he was on top of the world with it", asked Naruto while handing the scroll to the Hokage.

"Ah so he didn't tell you what was in it? You didn't open it either, I see", said Sarutobi.

"Why would I open something that doesn't belong to me for?" asked the boy.

"I guess you wouldn't be faithful if you did. Fine I will tell you. This is the scroll of the forbidden seals. It contains all jutsus that Yondaime Hokage considered to dangerous for a shinobi to learn for their own sake. That is why it is called forbidden", explained Sarutobi.

"Then I guess it's a good thing I never peaked in. Wouldn't want to learn anything to put me in an even greater risk then I already am", laughed Naruto.

"Just one more thing Naruto, there is something you must always remember. Great power comes with great responsibility. Given your power, you are responsible for it, so I would advice you to not use it till you understand it. If you show your power to quickly people will start fearing you more then ever, so use it at your own discretion and unveil it slowly. Till you have fully understand your abilities, use it only if you are in a real danger or if you must protect someone from a great danger, understood? By the way, I am curious to know, what you did to Mizuki to look that bad beaten?" asked Sarutobi.

"Dude, you don't have to tell me that twice. I don't plan to use okaen even after completely mastering it, unless I am far away from those I am about to protect. So don't worry about it, I don't want anymore of those villagers glares for potential friendly accidents, got enough glares already. I gave the bastard a piece of my mind", laughed back Naruto.

"Good, I am glad we have an understanding. I suggest you go home and rest, you got a big day tomorrow. I thank you for the great service you have done for Konoha and now I must bid you farewell", added Sarutobi before disappearing from the field.

* * *

Of course, Naruto never listened to the last suggestion. He kept on training all night long, with an added determination. So he barely had any sleep by the time the class started. He was the first to enter and the first thing he did was to take a nap while the others slowly entered on their turn barely noticing the blond haired orange dressed shinobi. That is until one Haruno Sakura walked in and shoved him out of his seat so she could sit next to his neighbor, who happened to be Uchiha Sasuke, the number one rookie of the class. Naruto didn't mind ignored but he didn't like being shoved while sleeping and was about to give the person a piece of his mind till he realized that it was a girl and second it was Sakura, to which he quickly backed a way and searched for a new seat, only to find that the rest of the seats have been filled by the others apart the one next to her. So he covered his head and quietly sat back. 

The reason why he wanted to get away from her was due to an incident that occurred 8 years ago. She was the first and only girl he ever got interested in, in other words his first crush. However, that crush lasted for a day thanks to her parents. Even before he could approach her, they shone him away with their glares, declared him an evil influence to the well being of their daughter. Now he felt humiliated for being call that but remained passive. That evening he found her being harassed by three boys, so he defended her, but in return the parents of the boys as well as her parents gave him a beating for which he suffered for the next three days. He was four at that time and he never forgave her for not stopping her parents of wrongfully accusing him for the crime he had just saved her from. Ever since that day he decided to stay as far as he could from her, he wasn't interested on saving her butt again and he knew that his conscious would force him to go to her rescue if he was near her.

Sakura however had totally forgotten about that incident and was pretty much totally oblivious to his presence. To her he was a dumb clone with bad fashion sense. All that mattered to her was that she was sitting next to her Sasuke-kun, the hottest and coolest boy in class and her first and only love. She was also happy that she had beaten Yamanaka Ino, her rival in love, by stealing this seat. Unlike Sakura who was chuckling, Uchiha Sasuke was brooding while doing his cool cold pose. He was annoyed by his fan girls, whom he found useless and annoying. To him all that mattered was to be the best and vengeance anything else was a nuisance, unproductive and would only slow him down. So one could easily guess what Sasuke thought of Sakura: a useless nuisance that would slow him down.

Naruto and Sasuke were from the opposite side of the scale on pretty much all aspect of life. The only thing Sasuke respected of Naruto was the fact that he was an orphan like him. While the only part of Sasuke that Naruto accepted was that he was lone wolf like him. Anything else and they were fire and ice, Naruto being the fire while Sasuke being the ice. What Sasuke couldn't stand of Naruto was the fact that he was the loser of the class, while Naruto couldn't stand Sasuke's elitist showoff attitude. In fact, one could not stand the others presence near him.

So given their relationships between each other, it was clear that neither of the three were happy to hear their names called together under the same team. Thus team 7 was formed under the guidance of the elite jounin Hatake Kakashi. On one side was Haruno Sakura, a book worm in red, the other Uchiha Sasuke, the blue dressed number one rookie who also happens to be the last and sole survivor of the Uchiha clan and finally Uzumaki Naruto, the orange dressed former prankster who also happens to be a Jinchuuriki. A match made in hell. During lunch a joyous Sakura tried to bond with her love only to get totally ignored. While Naruto kept on trying to recover his sleep by skipping lunch for his nap.

* * *

After lunch, the new genin teams were to meet and be picked up by their new sensei. Unfortunately for team 7, they had to wait three extra hours then the rest till Kakashi showed up. He gave one of his elaborate excuses to explain his lateness, but no one was fooled, since Naruto was still drowsy, Sakura didn't buy it and Sasuke didn't care. Kakashi took them to an open terrace and presented himself then ask to each of them to introduce them selves. It started with Naruto, whose presentation made him the laughing stock of his two teammates, as he claimed his dream was to become the greatest Hokage ever. Then it was Sakura's turn, who blushed so much while looking at Sasuke that it didn't take long for either Kakashi or Naruto to figure out her interests. Finally, it was Sasuke's turn who revealed that he plan to rebuild his clan and to kill a certain man. Kakashi then revealed that they were to meet him tomorrow at training ground 7 at 6 A.M. for a field test and asked them to not bring any food, nor eat any, as the test may cause nausea. He also revealed that should any of them failed his test they would be returned to the academy and their genin status suspended, so they should be prepared for the worst during the test and disappeared from the view. 

After he left, the three got up and parted their ways, well more like Naruto went one way and Sasuke went the other with Sakura trailing behind him. Sakura decided to try her luck again and attempted to get a date with Sasuke. But Sasuke being Sasuke put her down hard, claiming that he didn't have time to spend with weaklings and suggested that if she cared about their future she would go and make sure that Naruto is knew what to do. Sakura acting like his dog automatically went after Naruto with her new mission. She found him at the Ichiraku Ramen, eating his lunch, which happens to be his favorite food in the world ramen. She asked to be at his company to which she got a weird glance from him as it was the first time any girl asked his company. He told her that it would be a bad idea, as he tends to make a bad influence on others. She told him that she wasn't looking for a date, which she reminded that she wouldn't even if he was the last guy on earth. She simply wanted to know him better so she would know what parts to cover so their test won't turn out to be a failure like him.

"_Like parents like daughter, keep coming with your insults Haruno, the more the better, God I am so going to enjoy putting that smock off both of your faces"_, thought Naruto.

Just then they were met by team 10 of Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. Ino being her usual self, started to push Sakura's buttons, by revealing that she had just seen Sasuke practicing at training field 10 and that it seemed to her that he already didn't like his team. She hinted that maybe they weren't worthy of a man of his skills and she planned to go and train with him after their conversation. That was enough to start the verbal cat fight between the two. Meanwhile, Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji greeted each other, they were all detention buddies and possibly the closest thing to friends Naruto ever had. They talked a bit, before Naruto was virtually yanked out of his seat by Sakura. She tried to force him to come with her at training field 10 to train with Sasuke. Naruto laughed at her request replying that it would be better she went alone. After all he, Naruto, was the weakest link of the group and she should know how Sasuke hated weak people. So he, Naruto, would go and train by himself, in order to catch up to their expectation. His cleaver trick worked and thus he managed to finally go back to his daily activity, self-training at area 51.

In spite of his effort this would not be his last meeting with Sakura of the day. As luck would have it she and Ino both got dumped by Sasuke hard and he reminded her that she should go and watch over that _dobe_ Naruto, so that he doesn't mess up their day tomorrow with his stupidity. Thus Sakura again played her role as the dog of the last Uchiha and went for the hunt of Naruto. It would have been a hard task if it wasn't for a certain Hyuuga Hinata of team 8, which included Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. Hinata was known to have a crush on Naruto but she was too shy to tell him in fear of rejection, so instead she used stalk him when ever possible. She knew that Naruto trained somewhere around area 50, which was the limit her father, the clan heir, had permitted her to walk without an adult escort. So instead of 2 hours it only took Sakura 30 minutes to find Naruto's location.

* * *

When she did find him, she was surprised to see him performing some complicated taijutsu moves she never seen before. She decided to spy on him for a while before intervening, thus she hid herself near the bushes 20 meters behind him. The stance Naruto was performing resembled like the tiger stances of shaolin kempo, his own version that is and was very complicated as it had about 7 steps. What Sakura didn't know was that he had an additional 100 pound weights strapped on him for a total of 200 pounds of additional weight without counting the weight of his orange suit and it was his first day trying it. This made his stance slow resembling the agility described in his academic records, which was still faster then her agility. So she was impressed that he was doing such a complicated stance, she had figured taijutsu would be his strong point but not by this much. However, her spying mission ended quickly thanks to her indiscretion, as she accidentally twitched one of the vines of the bushes. This immediately alerted Naruto, as he retaliated by throwing a quick kunai at her direction before she could move. She screamed in fear, but she wasn't hit, instead she found the kunai stuck on the tree behind her inches above her head and Naruto in front of her with a menacing look. 

"_Damn it, he used the kunai to sniff me out. Either that or he missed but I revealed myself out by screaming. Either way I am screwed"_, thought Sakura.

"What the hell are you doing here? Did you have a death wish trying to spy game with me? I nearly killed you by accident, you know? This isn't a place to joke around, there can be real predators here", yelled Naruto to her.

"Calm down, I just came to train with you. Sasuke-kun didn't need any sparing partner so I thought you would be interested. I saw you concentrated of your combo so I decided to wait till you finished, but I wasn't discrete enough, no need to over do it, you know? Wait what you mean real predators?" asked Sakura.

"Like wolves, foxes, snakes, centipedes. This is the outer zone of the village there is no protection here. This isn't the place for an amateur. You came to train with me? Do you seriously think that I will believe that you Haruno Sakura, biggest fan girl of Show-off boy came here to train with me? Speak the truth, what happened did he dump you again and asked you to spy for him? Or maybe he sent you here to remind me to not mess up his glory tomorrow. I mean you do like to be his lap dog don't you? So which is it?" interrogated the boy.

"Stop saying nonsense, I am just trying to know you better for the sake of the team, no need insult me for that. Sasuke-kun wanted to join us also, but he had checkout something about Kakashi-sensei. Besides, last I recall this field isn't own by you so I am entitled to train here just as you are", lied Sakura.

"Liar! I knew it, you are so into him, that you didn't even realize you came here because of his request and now you are even trying to defend him. That egoistical bastard is so full of himself! If it wasn't for the fact that he is on team I would have made him eat all his words. Fine you want to train here? Train, but don't disturb me", yelled back Naruto towards Sakura, who knew he had caught her tongue.

"Fine, I will! I can't believe I actually wanted to help you. What a jerk", yelled back Sakura.

Thus concluded their conversation, both went to train on separate directions, neither trying to bother the other. Naruto kept on working on her stance while trying to adjust his body to the additional pounds of weights, while Sakura decided to work on her kicks and punches on the specially prepared three with a covered fighting pad. The two glanced at each other time to time but never talked to the other till the end, when Naruto had to help her find the way back to the village, as it was dark.

End of chapter 1

* * *

A/N: Well what you think. For those who are wondering no Naruto isn't uber strong. He is simply good at fighting and anything related to that and of course when it comes to solving emotional problems. He is hesitant, lacks social values, has zero understanding of chakra control, has a lot of will power and potential, very determined and has those abilities which he hardly going to use unless he has his back on the wall (i.e. last resort).Anyway, next test, Bell test and training. Read and Review, Please! 

**

* * *

New Techniques**

Janken Rendan / Rock-Paper-Scissors Combo: B rank taijutsu created by Naruto, where he starts with a hard punch, follows up with a palm strike and finishes with a scissors kick, with a lot of his chakra infused on the hits making it very painful and resulting to a lot of bone fractures. Usually it's a punch to the gut, palm strike on the pectoral and the scissors kick to the head.

Okaen / Inflame: A rank ninjutsu created by Naruto where he blasts the area surrounding him with a wave of fire on a given radius and height. The burst of flames acts like a heat shockwave and engulfs anything on its passage, in which only Naruto is left unharmed. (Check Enflame skill in the game Fable for a resemblance it's the exact one)


	2. Chapter 2

**Will of Fire**

Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto, so I don't own him.  
Legend: "": quote, "_italic_": thought, _italic_: Japanese word, (): translation/explication, underline: techniques (check the end for invented techniques).

Chapter 2: The War of Bells!

The sun had just risen when all three members of team 7 presented themselves at the designated test field. Naruto not being an early bird was still drowsy, Sasuke was stiff as usual and Sakura was still a bit tired due to yesterday's training. She didn't like to admit it but it was possibly her longest work out ever. She was still glad she did though. It gave her some new insights about Naruto, whom she barely knew. She now knows enough to believe that when it came to fighting, she was the weakest link amongst the three. Something even her inner-self would not have believed if she had not been there.

Naruto on the other hand wasn't glad she trained with him. Not because of her participation it self but rather what came after it. He had to escort her back to Konoha, because Sakura was not a night person. It was her first night outing without her parents and she really wasn't a night time person, thus she was a very bad guide after dark. He wouldn't have mind doing the service if he wasn't afraid of getting falsely accused by her parents again. Then again that counted for most of the other kids as well, it was always the parents that were his problems. Luckily he didn't have to go all the way to her doorstep; the entrance to her street did the job. After which he bailed faster then a speeding bullet.

In the end, he was a little bit happy that he got to learn the pink haired kunochi a bit. He found out that she wasn't quite the clueless Sasuke-kun follower as he thought she was. She worked hard but obviously she needed help, she didn't know how to kick or where to kick, her speed was worst then Chouji, whom he considered the slowest guy in class and she didn't have any techniques on her taijutsu. Basically, she was a bookworm, but she could turn out to be a great teammate, if she ever got over her delusions of the last Uchiha that is. At least she was more dependable then him.

Given that they still had ten minutes, Sakura tried to give a small briefing about Naruto to Sasuke, who ignored her again by saying that he didn't need to know the details. He already knew enough on him, which was basically that Naruto was a useless moron. His attitude pissed of Naruto, who felt sorry for the poor girl to get ignored so brutally even though she was telling on him, but he didn't intervene for the sake of the team. Of course, when it came to ignorance he was no better then him, well especially in the morning. When Sakura tried to talk to him about his views and strategies on what they could be tested on, he asked her if he could use her as his pillow till Kakashi got here. That earned him a slap from her part. Clearly he was still half a sleep.

* * *

If there was one thing Naruto was really bad at it was social skills. He wasn't anti-social like Sasuke, he was sociable, but given that he hardly had any social experience, he didn't know how to talk to people, especially to girls. To him, girls were guys with a different physical anatomy. He never even bothered to ask himself why they were physically different. This always led him to make stupid comments, especially if he is drowsy. So to him asking Sakura to be his pillow was act of camaraderie. Everyone apart him knew what it really meant to ask a girl such a question. Thus it can be said that he was socially an idiot or for better term uncultured. Add this with the fact that he was also very forgetful about trivial stuff and you can pretty much see why he is considered so lowly in term of intelligence. It throws all his better qualities in the drain.

* * *

Sakura was so furious about his comment that she didn't talk to him for the next hour. She found it derogatory and it made her think that he also thought she was weak and useless. Well she was going to show him who is weak when the test starts. Thus all, three stayed in their corner and quiet till Kakashi appeared which happened to be four hours later, at 10 A.M. By which time Naruto was well awake and somewhat hungry like the two others.

"Sorry, I was lost on the road of life. I had to help an old lady cross the street", said the jounin.

This got him yelled at by both Naruto and Sakura, who duly reminded him that it didn't take 4 hours to help an old lady cross the street. Sasuke on the other hand brooded something, which Kakashi assumed was a reference of himself being an idiot. The jounin duly noted to come out with a better catch phrase next time and proceeded to explain the test.

"It is called a bell test and as you can see I have two of them on me. Your goal is to come at me with everything you got and try to take one of them from me. If you fail to do so you fail the test and will be automatically sent back to the academy. Consider this as your final test to be considered worthy of the genin title. Think of it also as a mission to prove to me that you are worthy of my acknowledgement. You have until noon to complete this task", explained Kakashi.

All three understood that the one who would fail to get a bell would be the failure since there were only two bells on Kakashi and proceeded to go solo. Thus when Kakashi started the match both Sakura and Sasuke went immediately into hiding to come up with their own plan to defeat the jounin. Naruto however had other ideas he challenged him to a fight right on the spot. This made all the other members shake their heads as it was clear that he was a total dumbass.

Naruto attacked Kakashi with basic taijutsu attacks. The jounin having read each of their academic files and having a fair assumption from it was unfazed by the mediocre attacks. Sasuke thought the same, but he was glad Naruto was doing it as it helped him gather information on Kakashi. Only Sakura doubted his actions. He clearly wasn't trying to be at his best, considering what she saw him do yesterday. So it became clear to her that he was faking it, to either test Kakashi's reflexes or playing the game of deception. She quickly approached Sasuke and tried to convey her beliefs, but the Uchiha just wouldn't listen. He was too busy with his own plan and told her to back off. Thus defeated Sakura once again returned to her original hiding spot and concocted her own strategy to apply against the jounin.

Unknown to her, Sakura was right. This was all a decoy put up by Naruto to lower Kakashi's guard. He figured that given his academic records and the fact that everyone considered him an idiot would certainly make him look weak in the jounins eyes, so why not drown him with it. Then he can exploit him to the fullest just when jounin would leave himself open. He will wait for that opening and then strike at full speed and steal one of the bells. It was a great plan, except he had forgot one thing that is Kakashi was most likely planning his own assault upon him.

First, Kakashi irritated him by trying to read his favorite book 'icha icha paradise' while blocking his attacks. This was a sign to show him that he considered his attacks a joke, but unfortunate for Kakashi, Naruto knew what type of book that was, a perverted book. This gave the boy a future backup plan if his coup failed, after all he knew very well that Kakashi was now an easy victim, for his orioke (sexy centerfold), a jutsu that he uses to exploit perverts. He kept that in mind and kept on his initial plan.

After five minutes of blocking lame taijutsu attacks, Kakashi got bored and decided to teach this hard headed student of his a lesson in public humiliation. Unfortunate for him, the moment he decided to give the boy an ass poke, which he called sennen goroshi (thousand years of pain), was also the same time he left an big opening to which Naruto sped up and grabbed one of his bells. The end result was a Naruto flying into the stars with a bell and an ass in pain and a smirking Kakashi unaware that he was missing a bell. He had just technically helped the boy on his breakaway, while keeping the two others away from the assumption that Naruto successfully succeeded his mission. As far as they could see the poor fool had received the utmost humiliation and proved once more what a moron he really is.

That being said thanks to his collected data on Kakashi, Sasuke was ready to get his own trap in action. From his point of view, Kakashi was fast but not that fast, had a blind spot thanks to his left eye which is covered and on top of all was underestimating all of them, especially him. If only he knew how wrong those assumptions were.

Sakura being the less stealthy of the two was now on Kakashi's radar. He knew were Sasuke was too and was somewhat aware of his plan but decided to play along with Sakura. He would keep the Uchiha for last. He went a head of her and gave her an opportunity to sneak up upon him, which she tried but ultimately failed as he got behind her.

"It is dumb to sneak up on a jounin with only a kunai in hand, little Sakura: magen narakumi (demonic illusions hell viewing). See what happened to Sasuke when he did it", said Kakashi, as he put her in a genjutsu which gave her an illusion of a murdered Sasuke and her being powerless to save him.

The scene was too intense for her and she screamed her heart out before fainting. Far away, Naruto who had recovered from his pain and now had decided to wait it out heard her screams, as well as Sasuke. He pitied the poor girl thinking that she must have gotten the same treatment as him from that pervert. Sasuke on the other hand had just finished setting up the final touches of his plan and was now about to check on her. He wasn't much interested on what happened to her, but he did need to go there to attract Kakashi into his trap. He was somewhat disappointed she got defeated so quickly, he was expecting her to be more resistant.

Then again he had already guessed that he would be the only one to get a bell. It may sound arrogant from his part, but considering that Sakura was nothing more then a bookworm and Naruto an idiot, he couldn't phantom the idea that any of these two would manage to complete such task. He on the other hand was different he was an Uchiha, the last Uchiha. As the survivor of the most powerful clan in Konoha, he had to prove to Kakashi and to himself that he was above and beyond their levels, even if that meant he had to take the jounin out permanently. After all, Kakashi did say come out with all he got and if he couldn't assume such possibility then how could he take the role as the avenger of his clan? So yes, he was cold to his teammate but that is because it is the only way for him to force himself on working harder. Now he was going to test that power by defeating Kakashi.

* * *

However before Sasuke could go and lure Kakashi in, the jounin made the trip for him by presenting himself at his stage, forcing him to go into hiding once more. Sasuke noticed that the jounin was too close to his traps, if he sees them before they are used then his hard work would go to drain. So he diverted the jounin's attention by throwing a few shurikens towards him. Like a pro Kakashi evaded the shuriken with ease and had enough time to locate Sasuke. Just then another set of shurikens stroke him from the left side, forcing him to escape with kawarimi (body switching). Sasuke then revealed himself to attract the real Kakashi. He needed to do that to have the jounin's back facing his traps to increase their efficiency. 

"You are good at deceiving people I will give you that but unlike them I am far different. You should not take me so lightly because I won't fall into your tricks. Reveal your true self Kakashi". Said Sasuke, as Kakashi appeared before him.

"Speaking like a true number one rookie, I guess that can't be helped. After all, when you are number one, it is tough not to become ambitious and arrogant. I still don't think you should rank yourself that high considering you haven't managed anything either", replied back Kakashi.

"That is what you think, but before you go in one of your long speeches, how about revealing your true self and not this clone of yours? I mean last I checked you weren't reckless enough to set yourself in front of a visible exploding tag. Here allow be to dig you out", said the Uchiha, as ignited the trap.

The trap exploded from four fronts, the upper tree, the ground and the surrounding tree, all in all four explosions, which forced Kakashi the real one to show himself.

"A bold move young Uchiha that was indeed a nice plan to dig me out. However, you left yourself open. I could have very well used all that time to strike back at you", replied back Kakashi.

"I wouldn't think that way. You see as far as I can see you are playing with us and given that you are testing our abilities, you are being very lenient. If you were half as serious as you say, you would not have resulted in insulting us, but rather knocking us out instantly from the start. That will be your weakness because unlike you I fully intent to take this game very seriously", said Sasuke, as he threw a few kunais at him.

"Nice deduction, you seem to be a very good reader but such futile attempts like throwing kunais won't work with me", said Kakashi, as he parried the kunais with his own kunai.

It was then that he saw what Sasuke had planned for him. He wasn't shooting kunai just at him but also using them to shoot some behind him. These kunais were meant to cut the ropes that worked as activators for his traps. Instantly, Kakashi found himself covered by a net from above and showered with kunais and shurikens from all sides. The boy wasn't lying when he said he was serious. Kakashi quickly used kawarimi again and then replaced himself with a tree trunk then he switched himself with a kage bunshin (shadow clone) and went back into hiding. He was certain this wasn't the last of the Uchiha's traps and he didn't want to take the risk. Just as he thought the shadow clone was soon attacked by another set of projectiles which ended with an explosion tag tied around one of the kunais which exploded on it. Seeing that he had given the jounin enough time to switch place with a kage bunshin, Sasuke cursed himself for his novice mistake.

"That was some impressive work, as expected on an Uchiha. I will give you credit for keeping your words, you really tried to kill me and more then once. Unfortunately, your arrogance will be your doom. By showing me this you now allow me to use lethal force against you. Then again, I wonder if I should, after all you still didn't manage to get a bell or get a scratch on me and you openly defied me, which is not smart for a genin. You basically did the same thing as Naruto and Sakura, just that you were a bit flashier. Lat I checked that wasn't a requirement to pass this test. Too bad, you just failed to prove me that you aren't any different then them. So I guess that makes you a failure like the two others", said Kakashi with a smile.

"Why you, I will show you, how wrong you are", said an angry Sasuke, as he charged towards the jounin.

The Uchiha first threw a few more shurikens at him then attempted to kick him from being, which the jounin blocked with his right arm, then grabbed with his left hand. Sasuke followed it up with a right hand punch, which Kakashi grabbed with his right hand. Sasuke then attempted to kick him with an upside down kick with his remaining leg, which the jounin blocked by trapping it between his shoulder blade and neck. This put Kakashi in a compromising position as he now had his hand full while Sasuke still had one hand free. Free to grab one of the bells, only to realize there was only one bell left on Kakashi. That small second of distraction cost him the last bell as Kakashi used it to kick him away.

"_What, how come he is missing a bell? Don't tell me one of those morons actually managed to get one before me. No that is impossible, most likely he dropped it while he was having fun or using it as a trap. Either way, I must get this one at all cost"_, thought Sasuke in anger, as he started to perform a set of seals.

"_Damn that was close this guy is really good as he claims. I never thought I would have that much trouble handling a genin. What the hell that set of hand seals… he can't be using that jutsu… a genin shouldn't have the knowledge and even less the chakra requirement to do that jutsu"_, thought Kakashi, as he saw the hand seals performed by the Uchiha.

Just as Kakashi had feared Sasuke unleashed a giant stream of fire upon him, the katon goukakyuu (fire element great fireball). Much to the Uchiha's chagrin he had missed the jounin once more. He knew this because he found no trace of him after the fire had cleared. Just then he felt a hand grab his leg from beneath and before he could react, he found himself buried in the ground up to his neck and unable to move.

"Doton shinjuu zanshu (earth element inner decapitation), a shinobi must never let his guard down, or he will lose his head. I must admit you are different from the others. You have surprised me the most, but then again you are Uchiha. Having said that you are still too arrogant and reckless, that along with your elitist personality makes you an easy target. See how you allowed me to easily gain advantage on you with a simple taunt? Nobody likes a snob Sasuke, certainly not in a team", said Kakashi.

"Again with your damn lectures, instead of trying to preach how about paying more attention in battle? You were so much into having fun nagging us that you didn't even realize you are missing a bell or are you using that to trap someone?" replied back a frustrated Sasuke.

"What? Damn, you are right. I must have dropped it while pulling that genjutsu on Sakura. Oh well, time to pay her a visit again… anyway remember what I said. If you want to pass this test, remember why you were put in a team and better luck next time", said Kakashi, as he disappeared in search of the missing bell.

* * *

From the distant bushes Sakura had watched the waging battle. She had woken up a bit earlier thanks to all the explosions. As a spectator she was bedazzled by the Uchiha's coolness and abilities. She was somewhat fearful of him now. He did try to kill their sensei more then once. She was almost certain he had gotten one of the bells after those cool taijutsu moves followed by that fire attack, but alas that did not happen. He was still the prime candidate to pass the test, something she could not say for herself, as she has barely been able to do anything compared to him. When she heard Kakashi mentioning about her, she immediately retried towards location she was last victimized for finally getting her chance of retaliation. She knew Naruto hadn't shown his trump cards yet and figured that if she managed to succeed in surprising Kakashi now, she would still be in contention for that second bell. Sasuke on the other hand was in heavy reflection.

* * *

"Damn, I have to come up with a better plan. God this jutsu got me good, I can hardly move it is so tight that it will take me a lot of time getting out of it alone. Something still doesn't make sense though this test is way too hard for any single genin to get a bell alone. Unless… damn I should have known. The bells are nothing but a distraction. He used them to make us fight amongst each other for it, thus dividing from attacking him together. After all he asked me why we are put in a team and that is to work together to overcome opponents and obstacle who are stronger then us, someone like him. Gah! How could I have missed such an easy hint like that", grunted Sasuke, as he tried to free himself.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sakura was acting unconscious as Kakashi approached her. She had planned to keep this act till he would have his back turned on her, then she would leap and stab him from behind with a kunai and then slow him down with a few more projectiles. Of course when the opportune moment came, she froze after realizing that she didn't have any chance against him. She cursed herself for seeing Sasuke in action against him. She had a very low self-esteem, she had worked hard on it over the years but it still wasn't ready to have her face this challenge. In her mind, if Sasuke-kun couldn't do anything to him then she was doomed to fail. Thus she decided to keep pretending to be the knocked out girl, wait for Kakashi to clear the scene and go help Sasuke. That way at least she was assured to have some success and even potentially get the second bell from Sasuke as a present for her assistance.

* * *

Kakashi was now distraught, the bell wasn't near Sakura either and that meant he must have dropped it when he was fighting Naruto. He duly noted that Sakura was awake but disappointed that she had not attacked him while he gave her an opportunity. This meant that either she was intelligent enough to realize she could not do it alone or she chickened out, thus the dilemma of his disappointment as he could not guess which one. He figured he would have to see her next action to decide that outcome. As he reached his last destination, he found Naruto standing there and waiting for him. Clearly the brat hadn't learned his lesson from his last humiliation. 

"Looking for this? I thought you would have figured it instantly but I guess I was expecting too much off you. Then again you did ground the two others, so now I can start giving you the pounding you deserve for the humiliation you caused me without having to worry of exposing myself", said an serious Naruto while showing him the bell.

The tone of the boy's voice made Kakashi realize what had actually happened in their last encounter. His action made sense now, he was a prankster and only one of those would be able to deceive him that much from the onset. He forcefully lowered his abilities to make himself look weak and effectively played the role of the loser of the class to fool him. He waited for an opportunity for him to open up and when he did he accelerated to catch the bell. That opportunity was when he tried to set him up for the ass-poke, so both of them exploited it to execute their plans. As a result, he, Kakashi was to busy ass-poking to realize he was robbed while Naruto was too busy stealing the bell to realize he was being humiliated.

* * *

Now it all made sense, why Sandaime asked him to be careful with this boy. The rumor that he was the one to turn Mizuki into a bloody pulp was true, yesterday. His next question was how did Naruto do it? According to the rumor, Mizuki suffered broken abdominal and pectoral ribs and a severe head concussion, so bad that he was bleeding out from the inside. Luckily, he got executed in the morning rather then to be left alone to die slowly and painfully, which was imminent given the graveness of his crime. Now that he recalls, Sandaime also warned him to not get angry or there would be price to pay and he guessed Mizuki's injuries were that price, which meant it was most likely a powerful taijutsu attack. But then again it could be anything. It was clear now that this boy would make him work for his money, because all previous data on him were invalid. It is easy to hide your stats if you truly wish too and being a prankster which is synonym for being very deceptive, that door was wide open. 

Finally coming to a conclusion, Kakashi gave him an assessment of what he thought the boy had done, during which he also added how he thought the boy managed to fool him. Naruto pretty much agreed to the whole review apart his assumption that he purposely got poked to escape unnoticed. Kakashi congratulated on his cunning plan, but added that he was on to him. He wouldn't fall for it twice. Naruto reminded him that he didn't need to fool anymore, he had completed his original task and had the bell and all that remained was now Kakashi's punishment. He assured him that he had no idea what a horrible mistake he had done by ass-poking him, saying that the blond haired shinobi leaped into action.

* * *

This time the battle was much different from what Kakashi expected. Naruto rivaled Sasuke in speed and his taijutsu was far advanced and unpredictable. It was most likely an unorthodox version he created by himself as it didn't match any one style he, Kakashi, had seen. The best he could come up with was shaolin kempo, as some of the stances looked like coming from its tiger, leopard and dragon forms. But then some of the movement looked more like monkey form, then wolf form, heck it was one bizarre fighting style as far as he was concerned. This made his job ten times harder as now he basically had to go by each sequences at a time. Also considering that Naruto hits harder then Sasuke, he was feeling the pain. However, all being said he was still managing to avoid 50 of the attacks as his speed was still far greater then the blond haired shinobi.

* * *

Once again Sakura found herself as a spectator. She was about to join Sasuke when she heard the cry of a new battle, this time it was Naruto versus Kakashi and her teammate was definitely showing his thing now. It was clear that she was also a victim of his deception as he was clearly much better then he was in front of her yesterday. It made her feel even lower about herself, as now she felt that he didn't trust her enough to actually reveal himself to her. In fact, he must have been probably mocking at her taijutsu yesterday. Then again she really could not complain after all, she did start their day badly and she did mock at him. Now the joke was on her. He was holding on his own pretty well, but just like Sasuke, he also seemed to lack that extra pairs of hands to take Kakashi down. If she could manage Sasuke to side with him, all three or at least them two can finally overwhelm their infamous sensei. Thus without wasting anymore time, she rushed to free the Uchiha, while she prayed Naruto could hold on till they join up.

* * *

On the battlefield however, Kakashi was starting to wish he didn't poke this beast. Even thought Naruto was slower and having a lot of misses, it was clear that if this kept on he would lose by default, since when it came to stamina it was who Naruto had the edge. If this keeps on he would most likely have to use his sharingan, an outcome he really didn't want. He also did not like to be on the defensive, a situation that the boy was constantly putting him on. He was so much in the defensive that Naruto hardly ever needed to escape him with kawarimi, which he only did when Kakashi would try to stab him with kunai while he is unarmed or throw shurikens at him from a bad angle. 

All seem well till the point Naruto realized he had forgotten to take off his training weights. So when he began to take off those 100 pounds of additional weight and his jacket which had some more, Kakashi really started to swallow his fears. This simply wasn't his day. Round two started hard, as Naruto was much faster then before and the pressure was building on Kakashi's side. Now the boy was hitting him 80 of the time, as his unorthodox and irrational taijutsu style was getting the better of the jounin. Seeing no option but to convince the boy peacefully or reveal his own secret weapon, Kakashi opted for the latter. The best way to do that is to acknowledge him or so what Sandaime told him. He just hoped the old man was right, because even with sharingan, he wouldn't last long due to his stamina strain.

"Naruto, I will admit you have managed to surprise me greatly, but even you should know that this is pointless. I am much faster then you, even if your taijutsu is very high, you still won't be able to knock me out. I am an elite jounin after all. Besides, you aren't supposed to be bulldozing your way here. You are supposed to find the most efficient way to take me out. You should team up with the others and try something new together", said Kakashi, as he pushed him back to take a breather.

"Don't know about you but to me it seems that the elite jounin is getting pretty tired up. Besides, I have completed your test already now I am just enjoying myself. I haven't had this much fun ever. You sure you don't want to give up yet?" asked a smiling Naruto who stopped his attack.

"God, you are as much a pig head as Sasuke. It must be my lucky season to find two of you in the same team. When will you guys think before you attack and realize that the main goal was for you three to team up and attack me together? The bells are here to simply sidetrack you from that goal. Think logically, I am a jounin you are a genin, if I was the bad guy do you really think I would be toying with you guys or go for the kill? This isn't a game, you dumbass", yelled Kakashi.

"Hey enough with the insults already, I am not like that bastard Uchiha, besides it only makes me angrier you know? Didn't Sandaime tell you that already? Hmm, so that was the plan huh… well I hate to break the ice to you Kakashi-sensei but it would take you a miracle to get us teamed up together, well Sasuke and me that is. That elitist show off thinks he is too good to team up with Sakura even less me who he considers a loser. In fact, I am certain that he would rather have his head explode then to admit that I am better then him in taijutsu and speed. He clearly isn't a team player. Did you know that yesterday he purposely sent Sakura to remind me that I was weak and shouldn't do anything stupid to ruin his test today? Not to mention that he used her like a dog to spy on me? I guess that cannot be helped she is so full of him but then again, he goes one level below and totally ignores her", replies Naruto.

"… I guess I must have bragged Sandaime a bit too much this week. Either this is my karma or it's his punishment for always being late. You two are the worst possible combination any jounin can get as students. On one side, I have Sasuke, whose past forces him to act stronger then he is, not to mention the inability to admit that there maybe other kids stronger then him. On the other side, I have you, whose past forces you to hide your powers for your own sake. When you do start to show off he will pull a tantrum and it will turn out to be a clash of titans between the two. Finally there is Sakura who has some potential but she is too obsessed with her honeymoon rather then her job. Yup this is definitely a punishment for all the times I have been late during my career", said a depressed Kakashi, who just realized the big mess he got himself into.

"Yeah, aren't you a lucky bastard. You get to be the first to experience such a grateful experience. Hey, do not worry. You got your job simplified a bit. I promised Sandaime to not use my powers except in dire moments. At least till I understand it fully. Till then you got the time you need to prep Uchiha boy about his superiority complex or he gets a brain cramp and explodes. I mean he is on borrowed time you know? I was about to whoop his ass yesterday for sending Sakura to me like that", laughed Naruto, as he patted his poor sensei.

"You are not being funny Naruto", said Kakashi.

"I know, I know. Let's make a deal, you help me control my abilities and I will try to make that bastard look good in battle, while looking dumb okay? I mean it suits me well I get the advantage of being the underdog and I don't like the 'power spotlight' much", proposed Naruto.

"Are you sure about this? This isn't going to be a walk in the park you know. You will have to make plenty of hard decisions on when to use it or not", asked Kakashi.

"Hey, as far as I am concerned I wasn't supposed to know about my inner-demon if it wasn't for that bastard gym teacher anyway. So it is the best approach, I promised to use it at dire moment and I will. At the moment it is useless counting on it, since I don't have much control over it and given my position I rather play it safe then get leached like a dog", said Naruto.

"Alright then I guess your proposition is fair enough. Now tell me what seems to be your problem. I didn't really understand what Sandaime meant when he said to not get you angry. Is this why you almost killed Mizuki yesterday, because he got you angry by revealing that secret?" asked Kakashi.

"Well it is hard to explain since I don't pretty much understand it myself. According to Sandaime, my anger is the key to unlock the powers given by Kyuubi, which he thinks are immunity to fire and ability to control its hot fiery aura. I can somewhat control this aura by focusing my anger to my right arm for this jutsu I am trying to create, but it lacks something else. I mean I can gather it, but I cannot seem to control it once released, which he says I can. As for Mizuki's case, I don't recall using that fiery aura but I do recall being very angry when I hit him with my janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo). I usually use my normal aura for that attack, but I might have overdone it a bit", explained Naruto.

"This aura you speak of is it your chakra?" questioned Kakashi.

"Erm, what's a chakra?" asked a confused Naruto.

"You don't know what chakra is? I thought it was one of the main things they teach you at the academy. You know that energy like aura that surrounds you when you perform a jutsu?" asked Kakashi, who was astounded this boy didn't even know what chakra was.

"Sorry, I hardly paid attention to my classes. Ah so that is what chakra is? Yes, that's my aura I am talking about that is what I use for janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo). But the one I am talking about is different. It feels hot and is red, like a fire", Naruto tried to explain.

Kakashi took out his notebook to review at Naruto's academic record once more and clear enough he found the reason what this boy was talking like this. He had very poor knowledge and no chakra control, which is why he doesn't know what chakra really is. In other words, what Sandaime wanted him to do is teach him about controlling his chakra. Since he doesn't have that knowledge he releases his on impulse, hence why he said he thinks he hit him too hard due to being angry. He had no control so he due to his emotional state me must have unleashed a hefty amount of it when attacking Mizuki. As for the fiery aura he speaks of, it must be Kyuubi's chakra, who is possibly releases a lot of heat since he is the god of fire. This means that Naruto most likely has two different chakra systems, which would make him unique of his kind or so what he, Kakashi believes. It's either that or that it is still his chakra but he can turn it to a fiery mode with anger. Either way, the thing he must first do is start learning to control his chakra.

"Okay, Naruto. I know how to help you for that missing part. I will explain it to you later in detail, but for now I want you to show me that janken rendan of yours. Put back your weights on before doing so, it will make it easier for me to see through", asked Kakashi.

"You sure you are okay Kakashi-sensei? It's still very painful you know?" replied Naruto.

"I know it is that is why I will be using a kage bunshin to take the hit. Just hit it with much anger as you possibly can. I want to test it the solution I am going to propose for you is the correct one", said Kakashi, as he created a shadow clone after eating a solider pill.

"Wow, cool jutsu, you made a double of yourself. Why can't they teach something like that in the academy", said the boy at the sight of the shadow clone.

Naruto was oblivious to what Kakashi wanted to test but obeyed anyway. He dressed himself to his full attire, which included the training weights and prepared himself to attack. When Kakashi signaled he released a huge amount of his chakra and charged head on at the clone at maximum speed.

"Here I go. Take my _iwa_ (rock)! Feel my _kami_ (paper)!" yelled Naruto, as he did his first two blows.

"Ouch that got to hurt badly. Hey isn't paper supposed to come last and scissors before it or are you skipping on of the steps?" asked the observant Kakashi, which got the boy confused.

"Huh? I always thought paper was the second step. Wait let me review: paper beats rock, scissors beats paper and rock beats scissors. So scissors always comes after paper, not the opposite! Stop confusing me and you stop running away you damn clone. Eat my _chouki_ (scissors)! You lose, janken rendan", yelled Naruto, as he gave the final blow to the running shadow clone making it puff in thin air.

"Hmm, I was right. Just I figured what you lacked and what Sandaime asked you to train is your chakra control, which you confuse sometimes with your anger", answered a smiling Kakashi.

Naruto was now even more confused and he displayed it with the typical scratching behind the head like a monkey, much to the chagrin of the jounin, who realized he would need to come up with a simpler explication for this monkey to understand what he just said. Sensing the arrival of both Sasuke and Sakura, Kakashi quickly asked Naruto to pass him the bell, as part of their deal, which the boy did, since it no longer had any value for him. He promised to give him a better explication later at night.

* * *

The two arrived about a minute later, but before they could act, the timer rang signaling the end of the test. Sasuke was furious at himself. It took him way too much time to get out of that hole, even with Sakura's help. On their way, Sakura revealed to him that Naruto was trying to hold off the jounin by himself, which got him even angrier. To make things worst, they found that the easiest path was barricaded with traps, which they believed was the work of Kakashi. This forced them to make a detour, which cost them some precious time. The true perpetrator of these traps was of course Naruto, who wanted to ambush Kakashi there, till he realized that the jounin had taken an ulterior route. By now however, he had totally forgotten about ever placing them.

So when they arrived and found both Naruto and Kakashi sitting there waiting for them, Sasuke had a hard time controlling his emotions. First, because he had told Sakura that there is no way Naruto would be able to hold off Kakashi and that when they got there they would probably find him passed out. Second, their rush failed on a route taken by him instead of the one Sakura proposed to him. Third, Naruto was chatting with Kakashi and there seemed to be almost no serious battle on the field, which meant that he had used lesser effort then him and understood that the key was teamwork faster then he did. That was three huge blows to his ego, as all three of his predictions came false. His only success was that he was able to deliver the true objective of the test to Sakura before she fully realized it. That again was a small victory since she was possibly the first to realize without Kakashi's assistance that they needed to work as a team.

Naruto seeing the Uchiha's facial expression was savoring the moment internally, while on the outside gave him the 'I failed like you' expression. He was seriously enjoying the pain he was causing to this elitist bastard, if he only knew how much. Sakura on the other hand was simply glad the test was over. She admitted internally that she clearly wasn't ready for it. All of them then gathered around the memorial site for debriefing and where their supposed lunch should have been served.

* * *

"Man you three are a pain in the ass you know that? All you had to do is work together and you would have all passed. If you cannot understand the purpose of being part of being of a team then why bother forming one?" asked Kakashi. 

The three explained that in the end they did understand what they had done wrong and given another chance they would fix their previous mistakes. Kakashi wasn't letting them off the hook that easily. He was playing hard ball with them. He knew most of them understood their mistakes and probably wouldn't repeat them for a second time, but he needed them to prove him that this was a lesson they would never forget. So he set up his new trick wisely by giving them a long lecture. In this lecture he pointed out each of their weakness. That is Sasuke's arrogance and ignorance, Naruto's carelessness and impatience, and finally Sakura's lack of confidence and obsession.

He also pointed out that this test was the closest simulation each of them would face to the reality of a real mission. He reminded then what made Konoha one of the strongest villages in the 5 great nations: Their dedication to the concept of teamwork over the concept of self-interest. He also explained what role the members of the team played and many such little details mixed with gibberish to evaluate their attentiveness later.

"You see this monument behind you? On it are the names of the heroes of this village. All of them believed and respected what I just told you and each gave their lives to uphold these beliefs. They are the true shinobis the ones who risked their lives for the sake of others to form the bonds that protect this village. These rules must always be upheld no matter the consequences. I will give you one more chance to prove yourselves. This time I will make it much harder. Consider this a lesson for forgetting that a shinobi must always be able to read underneath the underneath and remember if you my rules you won't simply fail this test, you will be banned from ever becoming a shinobi", declared Kakashi.

Having self his plan straight, he then dropped two containers of food and ordered Naruto and Sasuke to eat them. He forbade either of them to pass their food to Sakura, who will be the victim of their punishment. He reminded them again that breaking his rules would ban them from ever becoming shinobis and left stating he had some business to attend to with Sandaime and would be back in half an hour.

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke began eating their lunch while Sakura tried painfully controlling her hunger, but her stomach still grumbled loudly. After waiting for a minute, Naruto handed his lunch to Sakura and insisted she eat her share. 

"What the hell are you doing, Naruto? Didn't you listen to what Kakashi-sensei just said? Do you want to get banned or what?" yelled Sakura.

"Shut up and eat Sakura, you clearly need more food then me. If you didn't you would have realized by now that this is another of his tricks to divert up from teamwork. Remember what he said, a shinobi must always be able to see underneath the underneath. After all that long speech about teamwork and bonding why would he give a rule that goes against it? It's just like the bell test. Besides, if that is his rules then I rather go with the rule of the heroes then his. At least I will die knowing that I didn't break what they gave their life for. Any way you look at it you will have to eat, because I cannot eat knowing that the person next to me is starving", replied Naruto.

"Naruto is right Sakura, this is just another of his obstacles he purposely put to weaken us. He knows that if you are hungry then it is assured that he will have a two versus one, because you are the one who is most hungry amongst the three of us. So here have some of my share too. Don't worry, I don't sense his presence nearby, so we are safe for now", added Sasuke.

"But feeding me won't help. I am bad when it comes to physical confrontation. I won't be able to help you guys. I am the weakest link here", countered Sakura.

"There are already two of us handling that section you don't need to worry about it. I am sure there are things you can do that both of cannot. You were put in this team for a reason you know?" replied Naruto.

"You are right, I do have better knowledge then both of you and I do know about genjutsu a bit more, well at least how to counter them", said Sakura.

"See there you became useful again. You can help us cover those sections when Kakashi-sensei tries to pull on of his fancy tricks. Now eat or else you will really become our weakest link", laughed Naruto, as he passed his share once more.

"That has me thinking, during the test, he pinned us at our strongest points. That is ninjutsu on me, taijutsu on Naruto and genjutsu on you, Sakura. Now he says he will make it harder for us, which most likely means that he will use our weakest point to pin us. So that would make you the most important member of the team Sakura since you are the genjutsu user of the team and we both are at our weakest at that", reflected Sasuke.

"Erm, Sasuke-kun, I have been trying to tell you for the whole day. I don't think Naruto really got pinned. He was trying to deceive him the first time and Kakashi sensei nearly fell for it. I know because I saw him train yesterday and I kind of saw a little sequence of their second bout", said Sakura, as she tried to jam her face with food.

The words gave Sasuke another low blow, while Naruto was now worried how much she saw and tired to stuff her food with more food to prevent her from talking. Sasuke seeing this action was certain she was right and had an even harder time digesting his food. Instead of worrying about this fact, he used his logic to deduct that the reason why Naruto probably looked better was because Kakashi had bought his deception. Besides it really didn't say anything about him being better then he is, so why worry about it. With this assumption, he decided to work on their strategic approach.

* * *

"Okay, here is what I am thinking. I will play the role of the striker and keep him busy. You two will act as my support and assist me by throwing projectiles and activating the traps we will set up around our battlefield, hopefully a dense grassy region to prevent him from hiding on the trees. Naruto will act as an enforcer from time to time, while you Sakura will be our genjutsu dispeller. The most important thing we must remember is to keep him always occupied", explained Sasuke. 

"Your plan is good as always Sasuke-kun. Naruto, got any problem with that?" asked Sakura.

"I think it's a bit to simple for someone like Kakashi-sensei. I would also change the position between your self and me, Sasuke. The striker is the one who is suppose to attack from mid range and long range when he finds openings. The one, who should keep him occupied, should be the deceiver, played by me. I say this because I have the most stamina amongst all three of us, I am also a close range fighter and given that I am a prankster I have more experience in deceptions. While you are a better then me at mid and long range, much more precise and have more jutsus in your arsenal. I also think we should add a bit more deception in each of our acts to get him more confused. After all, we are hunting a sneaky speedy rabbit", commented Naruto.

"You bring some very good points Naruto, but what kind of deception are you thinking?" asked Sakura.

"I think we should try to show him that we haven't learned our lesson, well at least not entirely. You know just acting out our former roles and use them to make more opportunistic hits on him", explained Naruto.

"I don't understand what you mean. Please explain?" asked Sasuke, who was open to suggestion for once.

"Simple, when you swoop in to assist me on a double team strike, you act your arrogant self, while I act like I don't trust you and at just at the last second he pull our synchronized attack. It's kind of like doing the monkey dance, you yell, I yell, we both get Sakura to think we are at each others throat and just when she lets her guards down and approaches us, we hit her instead of hitting each other. While you Sakura, will purposely act like the girl who falls at the slightest touch and try to remain unconscious to keep yourself out of his mind. This will allow you to cover for us against genjutsus and even take Sasuke's position when we double team him. In addition, by acting the knocked out girl, you can backstab him from time to time when he has his back turned on you. If all that doesn't make him fall within the first four turns, then I will have to use the secret weapon", explained Naruto with an evil grin on his face.

"Ah I get it. We play the fools and try to make our attacks as if it was by coincidence. Damn that is some plan, it has so many layers that I wouldn't want to be in Kakashi-sensei's place. I guess now I understand what they call you the prankster; you really are a cunning fox. Secret weapon, what can that be?" asked Sakura.

"Oh something, I found out while getting my ass-poked. That book that he was reading is actually a pervert book and you know what that mean. He is 100 vulnerable to the prank I play on Iruka-sensei. Just let him dare show off, I will give him a bloody nose for it", said the mischievous Naruto with a wink.

"You don't mean that obnoxious jutsu? You really want to get a payback for that ass-poke, don't you?" yelled Sakura, only to get a nod from Naruto.

"_Damn, this guy he really does come up with some wacky plan. It's so unexpected it might just work. Still for an idiot to come up with such an elaborate plan… I guess it is true what they say, intelligence and cunningness are two separate things"_, thought Sasuke.

* * *

"_Hmm, what a mischievous child indeed, I would have never managed to guess some of those deceptions of his. In reality, if each of them fought at their peak I would have my hands full already. But since he can't in their presence, he made a full proof plan with which each of them at half their powers can overwhelm me, unless I use my sharingan that is. Man these kids, I ask them a battle and they are planning for war. I better stop this before they start getting even more cynical ideas"_, thought Kakashi who was listening to them while hiding underground.

* * *

"Okay, I am up for it. Here are some weaknesses of Kakashi I think we can potentially exploit. First, his blind spot is on his left-eye side, so if you want to throw projectiles and to have them surprise him, use that side. He also tends to hide underground a lot and use a kage bunshin to fight for him, so if you see him being overconfident, throw an explosion tag on the ground around him. It should force him to surface. For traps, I think a few net traps to slow him down and, projectiles and explosive traps for distraction should do the trick. Erm, Sakura why do you have that look on your face? DAMN", yelled Sasuke followed by Naruto, as they saw why Sakura froze on the spot. 

Kakashi was in front of them with eyes all red like a blood thirsty assassin. Both boys cursed themselves for forgetting to keep an eye for him and prepared for the worst, while Sakura was relieving her whole childhood in front of her eyes, so much she was afraid of him.

"YOUUUU GUUYYYS … pass! … poor Sakura I think I overdid it a bit" said the jounin in a scary voice, realizing that his voice made the poor girl faint.

* * *

After making them live the scariest moment of their lives, well for Sakura at least, Kakashi explained why he is making them ass. 

"I told you earlier that a shinobi must always look underneath the underneath. The reason I said this is because even though rules are sacred for our honor one must be able to distinguish which one benefits and justifies for their mission. During your lifetime, you will have many situations were you will be forced to brake some, especially the ones usually given by your employers. If you obey all of it like a dog, you are nothing more then a moron who is walking to his own death. My best friend used to say, those who break the rules and codes in the shinobi world are called trash, but you know what? Those who don't care about their comrades are lower then trash. Always remember this quote whenever you doubt about breaking one of such rules. I learned it the hard way and it cost me greatly. I was stubborn as you guys were once, I always believing there is nothing worst then breaking rules and because of it, my best friends name ended up being here. So unless you wish to have the same regrets in life like I did, put this one as your first priority", explained Kakashi, as he looked back at the monument.

"Erm question, if you wanted us to just feed Sakura, why did you wait this long to show up?" asked Naruto.

"Well, I was going too, but then you guys started to reveal your plan. So I figured why not see what you guys had in mind. I must say you guys sure are impressive when it comes to running your imagination wild. Instead of a simple ganging up, you guys were planning to wage a war. Although that being said, you guys still need to work on building your bonds and we will be starting that from tomorrow. Meet me at area 60 at 10 AM and be ready for some intense training. We only have a week to fix our quirks before we join the workforce. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go make my report to the Hokage", said Kakashi who disappeared in thin air.

Thus with the departure of their teacher concluded the war of bells. The remaining participants finished eating their lunch before walking their separate paths. That is Sasuke and Sakura on one side and Naruto, who was running away before Sakura gets rejected by her romantic crush again, on the other.

End of Chapter 2

* * *

A/N: Voila, chapter 2… I wanted to write about the training they will follow the next week, but given that this test alone cost me 18 pages (God I don't know how I manage to make such a small portion in this many pages), it would better if I made a whole chapter for it on the next one. As you can see some of the deviation from the original storyline as already started. The next chapter will be more or less comical. It will involve training (tree walking, some jutsus, Naruto training Sakura), a survival training, more personal information on each characters and the Konohamaru section. Thanks for the reviews, hope I answered back all of them and keep sending more. It gets me motivated to write… (I am serious). This one should be releasing faster then Crimson Destiny since I don't have to reinvent almost every little detail but if there is one thing I can tell you, it is to not give your hopes up if it takes 2 weeks. The reason being: It takes a damn time to make those battles. Gotta choreograph them to look good, it is probably the reason you don't see many action/adventure fan fictions. I am starting to use some professional wrestling moves names to in the upcoming mangas (describing every kicks and punches is hell), so you may want to have wikipedia professional wrestling techniques guide, next to you in the future. It will save me pages and it will save some of you who complain I write too much per paragraph to complain less, since I wont have to explain who that damn move is. R&R Please! - Shingen 


	3. Chapter 3

**Will of Fire**

Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto, so I don't own him.  
Legend: "": quote, "_italic_": thought, _italic_: Japanese word, (): translation/explication, underline: techniques (check the end for invented techniques).

Chapter 3: The ape and his pillow!

The darkness of the night had covered the sky as Naruto found himself in the fourth phase of his personal training. He had been training for the last five hours and still had the energy to pull a few more. One would have expected him to be tired by now, considering the day he just had with Kakashi and his bell test, but that would have been a serious underestimation of his will.

Of course he did take some time to rest before beginning his grueling schedule. He had slept for two hours and then ate his favorite meal ramen at the Ichiraku Ramen before coming to training area 51. Then he ran 400 laps around the field, did a 1000 push ups, 1000 sit ups, then a full two hours of shuriken/kunai weapons training, took a thirty minutes break to eat a grilled fish he had caught and cooked, finally landing at his taijutsu training which he had been practicing for the last hour. He was now getting comfortable with the 200 pounds of training weights he had started to wear since three days, which for his showed great progress. He was a strong believer of the 'no pain no gain' mantra so he always pushes his limits beyond his initial capabilities. Thus when he would get to comfortable with the current training weights he would add another 50 pounds.

That is if he gets some pay from missions soon, being an orphan wasn't a luxury when it came to cost of living. His home was considered a ghost house, his room was so small that adding another person would be asking too much and his windows had wholes in them thanks to some the villagers, who used to throw a rock or two when ever his birthday was on, which coincidently happened to be also the same day Yondaime had defeated the Kyuubi and died. He was planning to move when he would have a bit more money thanks to his new jobs as genin but after realizing who he was, he knew it would be a damn long time before he would be able to afford a better home. After all, the law of demand and supply did not work when it came to him. Most villagers would overcharge him or limit his selections to the worst possible product, which he managed to live by all these years.

* * *

At the moment however, his mind wasn't on his social status but rather on Kakashi. The jounin had obviously tricked him like the rest, but putting him on a dilemma. He said he would explain to him how train on better manipulating chakra but he did not tell anything more. After the test, Naruto had made a valiant effort on reviewing his old class scrolls on the subject, which gave him a good explication on chakra but nothing about how to master it. Thus he was back to square one and was starting to feel betrayed. Just then his new sensei appeared in front of him out of nowhere as if he could sense when people where thinking about him. 

"Hi Naruto, I see that Hokage-sama guided me well, so this is where you train every night. Sorry for making you wait, we had a long chat about the team and time kind of ran by faster then I had expected. He was very pleased to learn that all three had passed successfully…" said Kakashi.

"I think you meant, all three that you made us pass, because we simply had way to much potential to pass on Kakashi-sensei", interrupted Naruto, which hit his sensei like a low blow.

"You sure are a dagger, Naruto, taking nothing for granted I see. Anyway, I came here because of our little promise earlier. I am still not sure if what I have planned for you is the right path, so I need to see you give me a demonstration of this jutsu of yours for better assessment", explained a nervous Kakashi.

"You meant, you wanted to see my okaen (inflame) in action because you cannot believe a 12 year old kid, considered an idiot can't possibly come up with something like that. For a moment, I really thought you came here to help me out, but now I see that I have to make you believe of my abilities to get the usual prejudices down. Okay, fine by me, just next time ask it straight away, I hate when people twist their words trying to act nice", corrected again the boy.

"Okay, I guess we started on the wrong foot. I shall be straight with you when it comes to speaking about you from now on. Yes, it is true I am somewhat skeptical, but not because I don't believe in you. It is just that it is very rare for a 12 year old to come up with such a deadly jutsu as Sandaime think it is. As for the help, well I told you earlier in the day that we will be training together from tomorrow and the chakra manipulation exercise will be an essential section of that training. Chakra isn't a thing you can master in a day. It may take you years to master it. It is the essence that makes a shinobi greater then the average man. For the moment I just wish to see what you came up with out of curiosity", explained a smiling Kakashi, who just felt another low blow from his student's words.

"Your argument is fair enough, so I guess I will show it to you, but you mustn't reveal its existence to anyone till I fully master it. We better go to the open field section and you better be more then five meters away from me, make that ten for safety reasons", said the boy.

Naruto was thrilled that the Hokage thought so highly of him. After all, if what Kakashi said was true then indeed Yondaime's path was proving to be the right step on his life. Kakashi on the other was more excited that he was getting to learn more about the boy. When he had taken this assignment, he always thought Naruto would be the toughest one to handle. He had a record of not being commendable and added to the emotional stress he might have endured all these years especially with the recent revelation about his link to Kyuubi would have no doubt assured that. But it turned out that he would be last of his worries between his two possibly depressed and tormented students. Sasuke won that round without contest while Naruto turned out to be the opposite. They were clearly on the opposite end of the scale, one an ice, the other a fire. He wish he could be like Naruto, all cheerful after being hit by a train, it was certainly a quality that would have helped him get rid of his past regrets.

Upon arriving at the designated location, they placed themselves. Kakashi placed himself five meters away from the boy must to his insistence claiming that he was prepped for immediate retreat if it went beyond the marker. However, after seeing him perform the okaen the jounin was secretly glad that the flames spread up to seven meters and four meters high. Had it been ten and he would be burned seriously even possibly die, given the intense heat the jutsu had released and the land was still burning. After a second trial, this time he being ten meters away, Kakashi was sure his assessment was correct. Naruto's jutsu was perfect for him, but given that he had no control over the range due to lack of chakra manipulation it was especially a hazard. It was clear to him that Sandaime was also right on the money about Naruto's possible abilities thanks to being Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki. It was even clearer that it was a solo jutsu to take out either large amount of targets or simply defending against multi-direction strikes.

Either way it wouldn't benefit the teamwork aspect much. Especially, the fact that Sasuke may pull a tantrum upon seeing the devastating power and Sakura may get scared by it. After all, Sasuke was the power hungry of the three while Sakura was one who lacked confidence. Kakashi confirmed Naruto's suspicion about not being able to use it around them even after mastering it fully. So they both agreed that when he does master it, Naruto would only use it when he has his back against the wall, while Sasuke and Sakura are far away. At least till Sasuke learned that he doesn't always have to be the strongest member of the team.

To end his visit Kakashi handed the blond haired boy a scroll. It was a gift from Sandaime for helping Konoha in the capture of Mizuki and for proving his loyalty to him and not opening the scroll of forbidden seals. The scroll contained the first jutsu on that scroll, the tajuu kage bunshin (multiple shadow clones) along with its simpler part the kage bunshin (shadow clone) with detailed explication on how to use them effectively and master them. Naruto was overjoyed when he saw what his little unintentional favor had brought him and began to jump like a monkey in excitement.

However, Kakashi quickly calmed him down, explaining that this jutsu wasn't a joy and it could potentially kill him if he used it wrongly. He then added that Naruto should leave tajuu kage bunshin for after getting some control over his chakra and that he should not start learning the kage bunshin right away. He wanted him rested for tomorrow as he won't be merciful if the boy didn't pay attention to his trainings. The jounin also added that he couldn't master it in a night either since it was a pretty complicated jutsu so he better take it slowly. After which, he ordered Naruto to go and sleep while he departed on his own path.

Unfortunately, Kakashi had underestimated the young boy's resilience once more. Naruto not only spent the rest of night deciphering the jutsus, but also mastering them and understanding their pros and cons. It was easy thanks to Sandaime's explication, thanks to which Naruto realized that he would be only able to summon one shadow clone if he wanted to be able to take strong hits like his janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo) and be able to summon only four of them if he wanted them to withstand multiple blows.

* * *

The training however, cost him his night of sleep, which allowed him to only nap for six hours and it was on the training field itself something he was quite used to doing, ever since he started to train secretly. When he did awake the next morning thanks to his trusty alarm clock which he had brought along, he only had five minutes before Kakashi's training would start, so he got up and ran like raging bull to be on time for the meeting. But given his lack of sleep he sluggish and fell back a sleep after listening to Kakashi's lecture a few minutes after arriving there.

Upon seeing him a sleep Kakashi sticked to his words and decided to give him the deserving punishment: another humiliating sennen goroshi (thousand years of pain), also commonly known as _kancho_ (ass poking). Thus the blond haired boy found himself waking up, as he flew in the air with his ass in pain.

Sadly Kakashi had no idea the havoc he had just unleashed upon himself. It so happens that Naruto has a bad habit of going 'ape mode' when he is awaken the wrong way. This is basically a moment where an unconscious and half to sleep Naruto acts like a raging gorilla and does not rest till he had pummeled his aggressor. Of course, given that her still has very little control in chakra means that the aggressor would most likely get beaten like a rag doll with shear power. So Kakashi, unknowingly nearly got blown of by _Enjinmon_ (ape-man monster, a name given by Sakura for this particular state of Naruto), if he hadn't realized that something was wrong with his pupil which was pretty easy to guess given that Enjinmon even walked like a gorilla. He survived by doing his usual trick of switching himself with his kage bunshin, while hiding himself underground, thus allowing the poor clone to take his punishment for him.

Satisfied that he had avenged himself, Enjinmon, got back to his usual task that is searching a good comfy place to sleep on, which turned out to be non-other then Haruno Sakura. Thus from this day, Sakura now affectionately called _Makura _(pillow) by Enjinmon, had become his go to resting place and disable mechanism of the spell. This was because when he would gave her and fall a sleep on her chest like a baby, Sakura's inner-defensive woman protection ability would surface and this would earn Naruto a Herculean smash from his pillow. This would lead to the awakening of the real Naruto with a large bump on his head and with no memory of his crime. She would also be the first girl out of a select few to be immune from his rude awakening.

So from that day forward, Kakashi would purposely awake Naruto with a kancho while making sure Sakura was near so that he get's to enjoy the little soap opera his two students would deliver him. This would be one of many such soap operas that make his new family enjoyable. The only one not wanting any path of such a family would be Uchiha Sasuke who would drop his head down and curse his luck by brooding silently. He really was a pain in the ass.

After Naruto woke up, Kakashi reminded him to not fall asleep again and proceeded to the sparing segment, which would be the first exercise the team would do every time they trained together. The team were setup as a one on one competition, with team one being Sasuke vs. Kakashi while team two was Naruto vs. Sakura. Team two did not appreciate their selection as Sakura wanted to be with Sasuke and Naruto knew Sakura wasn't in his league when it came to sparing. But neither can deny the Uchiha's firm demand, which proved Naruto's point of being a conceited pig head. He would have Kakashi and nothing else, thus for the sake of love for one and team for the other, they both agreed to be sparing partners.

* * *

Of course that being said, it still didn't help Naruto's case who even with the added 200 pounds of training weights found himself over powering and far more agile then anything Sakura can handle. She was a slug compared to him, with basic taijutsu style that made him cry inside. She didn't know how to kick properly and even less how to guard herself from an attack. So instead he decided to help her become better at both of those things so that at least she wouldn't make a fool of herself in real battles. This required a lot of patience from him, but he took it anyway realizing the alternative was far worst. That is, having to be the damsel in distress rescuer for the rest of his teaming career.

He began by explaining to her that to be effective in taijutsu a shinobi must his assets to his advantages and that for her that asset was her legs. He explained that being a girl, she was naturally more flexible then the boys and her long slim legs offered her with the gift of great reach and high angle kicks, if she learns how to extend her legs properly. Kicking was a delicate situation, it can land tremendous blows but it also leaves the user open for a counter attack of equal measure. You also have to add the subject of balance when kicking as if the user is in a bad position he may lose his stability and that is just asking for pain. Hence, the first rule he imposed her to obey when kicking someone is to kick somewhere where it will be most efficient in landing the kick as well as causing the most damage and that happened to be the head of the opponent.

To give her an example of his explication, he asked her to kick him, with a side kick then a followed by a spinning kick. As he had explained her kicks were poor. She was taller then him but both of her kicks camp up to his chest and arm respectively. He then asked her to repeat the two kicks and each time he grabbed her legs and showed her how he gained advantages over her. Then he showed her the advantage of kicking higher, that is that the user weather he lands or misses still forces his opponent to work for the opening, as he is forced to at least his head away and that is one far less chance of an immediate counter-attack.

Of course, Sakura was hesitant at trying high kicks, mainly because her mom had taught her that females don't kick high, it is disgraceful. One must note that Mrs. Haruno was a civilian and in her mind a girl must follow the traditional and ultra conservative way. That is getting ready to be a wife came above everything else. Raising legs higher usually gave glimpse of their panties and in worst case it could break their purity. Hence ruin the chance to get married into a good family. She was already against the idea of her daughter becoming a shinobi, which Sakura got away with thanks to her father's support, who happened to be one She would be damned if her daughter disgraced herself before settling down.

So when Naruto was forcing her to get her kicking angle from 120 degrees to 150 degrees she was fighting against it at first. From his point of view given her flexibility she could easily land a 160 or even170 degree kicks with a little bit of training, but getting her over 120 was a hard work due to her constant resistance. He could care less to her mother's plea, especially giving such a stupid statement without even explication to Sakura. He told her to go and find the reason for such statement before starting to believe in it. Thus, Sakura's resistance was defeated and she started to perform high kicks.

Kakashi who was keeping an eye on them while sparing with Sasuke was impressed how good Naruto was at teaching and even more at convincing. He was happy that Naruto made Sakura better, if only she knew how lucky she was getting this much help from him. He didn't bother them even though they were somewhat off-track. After all if she could pick a thing or two and improve then it would allow her to spar with him in the future and he already trained heavily at nights so he could afford to give away such privilege.

Kakashi also knew the reason why Mrs. Haruno made such comments but he like many others knew that times had changed. Girls weren't just for getting married now and theories such as kicking higher can lead to accidental lose of virginity was a pathetic statement as it was never proven. Besides, when you are a shinobi you got far worst thing to worry about then losing your virgin status, things like surviving.

After lunch, Kakashi introduced the kinobori (tree climbing) training to team 7. It would be their main exercise to getting better at controlling their chakra. The goal was simple. They had to learn how to climb a tree by simply walking up on it with chakra without using their hands for support. He gave a detailed explication on how controlling ones chakra made them better in battles and the additional bonus that came with this exercise that is increasing their stamina through constant practice. He also gave other benefits of controlling ones chakra such as the abilities to run faster, to hit harder and improve their precisions. After a brief explication of the steps they must follow to do this exercise and handing each a kunai as markers, the group started the exercise.

The first trial results showed the difference between the three students when it came to controlling their chakra. Naruto had the habit of using lower amount of chakra then required, while Sasuke uses too much. Only Sakura was perfect at it, it was one of her best fields, but unlike the two other her stamina was next to nothing compared to them, so she also was feeling the heat in this exercise. After a few more runs, Naruto was still the lowest achiever and saw that he wasn't progressing faster then Sasuke who was doing a better job then him. So in an attempt to gain higher ground, he went to ask Sakura for some advices.

It was here that Kakashi realized how good a team the two formed as now Sakura was able to return favor of the earlier training by helping him with this one. She told Naruto that he must first seek the right amount of chakra to have his feet stick on the tree and once that is done, then can he try to climb the three. Her words was a new revelation to him and he thanked her greatly for her effort. Thus following her guidance Naruto began to show great progress, for which Kakashi was delighted. It showed him that the bonding between team members had already started. He only wished his lone wolf, Uchiha Sasuke, would join in. It took a while for that to happen, Sasuke was still progressing using his flawed method and refusing to ask for any help, but even his arrogance to a hit when he realized that Naruto was gaining on him. So he went and asked him on what info he had gotten out of Sakura and soon enough he was also following the same method. Of course the team was far from reaching the top of the tree but they were undoubtedly making great progress.

The next segment was most likely the favorite part for all three genins, as it was jutsu training. Kakashi had selected 4 D-rank jutsu scrolls for them to learn. Each would chose one of the jutsus and learn it then after learning it they can trade with the others and learn another one till they learned all four jutsus, which their sensei considered to be essential for a genin. The jutsus were doton shinjuu zanshu (earth element inner decapitation), kage shuriken (shadow shuriken), shunshin (body flicker) and kanashibari (body paralysis).

Given their personality, Kakashi was certain that Sasuke would go for shinjuu zanshu, Sakura for kanashibari and Naruto for kage shuriken. This was because Sasuke had already experienced the earth elemental jutsu, while Sakura may not know the jutsus but knew the names enough to go for something that may help her slow her opponents down. As for Naruto, he wouldn't know what each jutsu are so would most likely go for the one which was more offensive. Although Kakashi got his prediction for Sasuke right, Sakura would have gone as he had predicted too if it wasn't for Naruto. Once again, Naruto took him off guard by selecting shunshin, which allowed Sakura to go for kage shuriken. Now the jutsu he had selected wasn't bad but it was more known to be used outside of battles rather then in the battles. Only one shinobi really did use it in battle and he happened to be the Yondaime Hokage.

Now this may be the reason why Naruto had selected it except for the fact that he wouldn't know what jutsu Yondaime used to use, these matters were highly classified. The only reason Kakashi knew was because he was his sensei. This meant that the boy went purely by coincidence, but then again given that he was devious, Kakashi feared it may have been for other reasons and indeed it was. For Naruto, the shunshin fitted as a bridge to link his other jutsus. Coincidently just like Yondaime he planned to use it to start of his attacks, as he believed nothing more is damaging then deceiving your opponent with a flash. Now for that it meant that he would have to apply the shunshin like Yondaime did, which was without any visible elements involved. This was an extremely hard task, but he was confident he would come up with it some how, he always did.

For the two other, they were somewhat relieved that Naruto had taken such a 'useless' jutsu, as both Sasuke and Sakura believed it was useless given Kakashi's explication. They were happy because both thought that out of the three Naruto would have the toughest time learning jutsus and that meant that he it would take longer for him to trade it. Meanwhile, they could swap the better ones between themselves while he struggled with his first one. Thus each went on their own corner to practice their new jutsus and as everyone thought Naruto was having the most difficult time.

* * *

That night, Naruto worked his ass off to learn the shunshin after his usual training with the additional two hours of kinobori exercise he added to his regime. After a few hours he had mastered it like the scroll had indicated, but he wasn't satisfied. He was using leaves as his teleportation mechanism and he wanted it to be like an instant teleportation. So he promised to work hard to find a solution to his problem.

Meanwhile, at the Haruno household, Sakura gave a detailed review of her training to her mother, who really wasn't enjoying it like her daughter. Her first problem was the realization that Uzumaki Naruto was in her team. Second was that he was sparing with her daughter and third was high kicking part. She was one of those fervent believers that Naruto was actually Kyuubi itself, so the image of him in her daughter's team was already too much, sparing with Sakura was overboard. She would have a chat with her husband to see if that could be changed she hoped it dearly. Her ideal solution would be to have Naruto change the team, as Sakura liked Sasuke who was from a noble family, thus a good choice for a husband. As for the kicking part, she decided to give her daughter the full 'girl talk' about sexuality. After her sudden lesson it was clear that Sakura would never dare to raise her legs that high again, she certainly didn't want anything that could harm her chance with Sasuke. Satisfied of her work, Mrs. Haruno then chatted with her husband about the other problem and the man promised to have a word with the Hokage first thing in the morning.

The following day, Kakashi had an uneasy talk with Sakura's father, who was guided by the Hokage to address him problem to the teacher of the team. He tried to persuade the jounin to kick Naruto out of the team, but Kakashi wasn't as considerate as the man. He told him that Naruto would stay on the team and he would most likely spar with Sakura weather they liked it or not. Naruto makes Sakura a better shinobi and if he was too blind to see that it was his fault. He added that as a shinobi, he should be more realistic then stupid belief of the villagers upon the boy, because one of these days he will greatly regret the mistake of mistreating him upon false beliefs all these years. Seeing that the stubborn jounin wouldn't heed to his words, Sakura's father departed unhappy, silently cursing the gratitude the demon boy was getting.

Upon training time, Kakashi day became lighter, thanks to none other then Uzumaki Naruto, as the boy had fulfilled one of his dreams: a live action of 'icha icha paradise'. The story started when he was training Sakura during the sparing time. Thanks to her mother's lesson, she categorically refused to high-kick stating that it was a matter of social status. She really had no intention of talking about sexuality with him and tried to end it with that, but he being stubborn kept requesting for a clear reason. She attempted to get away from the subject by subtlety telling him that it was something that involved her life after her kunochi duties. Note that as Naruto had told Kakashi, he didn't like that type of talk, so he told her to say the truth straight in his face. His statement made Sakura realize that he really wasn't socially educated, as most people would understand the hints she gave out. Given his personality he probably never had the 'talk' yet and she wasn't going to be the first to have that talk, certainly not with him.

"Look it is something that your parents will tell you when you get older, just drop the subject now. I have my personal reasons that is all", she told him.

"I don't give a crap about your personal reason. I already wasted a day to train you so either say it or do it. Also I will have you note that not everyone is fortunate as you. I lost my parents at birth, so if there I am offending you with just say it", replied back the boy.

"You were orphan since birth? Wait, then who raised you? You certainly had someone taking care of you, they can make you understand it", said a surprised Sakura who was unaware of this info.

"That's none of your business. Just state the reason or go find someone else to train with. I am not going to waste my day on you", yelled back the boy prompting an intervention from Kakashi.

"Okay, what's going on you two? This isn't a place for arguments you know", said the jounin, who came over to see what the shouting was about.

"Kakashi-sensei, explain to him why I cannot high-kick. He needs the 'talk', he is being obscene again", explained Sakura.

"I see it's that subject again. First of all, Sakura I would like to realize that whatever you may have been told about the 'female high-kicking folklore' has never been proven and as a kunochi it's your survival that matters above all else. So by doing this you are limiting your self. As for you Naruto, if she doesn't want to improve it's her fault, change the subject", explained Kakashi, as he also felt that he didn't want to give that 'talk' to him.

"Hey I never said I wouldn't train on it. I just won't train with him on that. If it is someone like Sasuke-kun, I would be okay with it", said a shy Sakura, as she blush at the taught of training with Sasuke.

"Finally the truth, if you want him so bad why didn't you just ask for it. That settles it I guess, Yo Monkey-boy get your ass here and train with your admirer. It's your day to spar with her anyway. Let's go Kakashi-sensei, I want to profit the maximum of my sparing time with you" said a happy Naruto.

"First, my name isn't Monkey-boy _dobe_, last I check you were the one who act likes one. As for your request, I categorically refuse! Get back here Kakashi, we aren't finished by a long shot", answered back Sasuke.

The answered destroyed Sakura's dream once more and proved again that Sasuke was a 'coincided bastard' as Naruto called him. Kakashi was pretty displeased by his star pupil's comment. But seeing that Sasuke was to stubborn to change in a day and that the process had to be gradual, he tried convince Naruto to either spar with Sakura lightly or teach her one of his many animal style he uses. The boy replied that none of what he used applied to her as his was mainly based on speed, inconsistency and critical points. None of which suited Sakura at, it would be like asking him to do the monkey dance style Sasuke uses, which the Uchiha reminded him to be capoeria. The jounin then told him to find something else to train her in and as a proposition he suggest on her blocking skills. The turn of events really displeased Naruto, but he also recalled that he had made a promise to play the game so now he had to assume the responsibility. Thus even though he hated it, he agreed to work on Sakura's blocking skills.

Thus the two groups went their separate ways once more and where the real fun started. Sakura was starting to feel weak again, as Naruto was showing a bit of his displeasure on the instruction. He wasn't being nice and helpful like the day before, his explication were hard and straight to the point. He told her to show him how she would block a palm attack from him. As she took guard and he launched his attack, Kakashi interrupted both of them to remind Naruto to not be so hard on poor Sakura. This earned Kakashi massive cursing from Naruto, who was so busy yelling that he forgot where his palm was going, while Sakura was simply taken by the distraction. As a result, he accidentally groped Sakura's bosom. Feeling violated, Sakura's inner self-protective reaction or 'wrath of a woman' took over her and she gave him one of her Herculean punches, while calling him a pervert, which sent him flying on a nearby tree and took the rest by surprise.

"What the hell was that for you damn girl? On top of that you dare insult me? God you really hit like an ape, I was wrong I may have a style for you after all", yelled Naruto as he got up from the blow.

"That is what you get for daring to touch my breast while my guard was down, you bastard! Why you degenerate and savage nincompoop, you dared to make fun on my looks, take that!" yelled Sakura, as she ran towards him and delivered a combo with her Herculean power sending Naruto crashing on another tree.

"What breast? You don't even have any and it was an accident, besides you shouldn't be even complaining because you are supposed put your guard up! The monkey style isn't also based on your face, stop acting as if I care about how you look and concentrate on the damn training", yelled back Naruto, which earned him another Herculean level combo from Sakura's part.

Meanwhile, the amused spectator, Kakashi, was living dream. This was exactly like what his book described what would happen in the given situation. An annoyed Sasuke reminded him that they were still sparing but Kakashi instead grabbed him and gave him a lesson on social welfare.

"I hope you learned some key points about woman today, Sasuke. First, never grab them like that. Second, never compare them with something ugly. Third, never ever complain on their assets or looks. Failing either of them will earn you the 'wrath of a woman', got it?" said Kakashi, while pointing out Naruto's flaw.

"Are you sure it isn't Naruto you should be giving this lesson to before he ends up getting himself killed by Sakura?" reminded him the Uchiha, at which point Kakashi leaped into action and stopped Naruto from committing another error, thus calming the angry Sakura.

Remarkably, even after taking such a beating, Naruto had no trouble getting up on his own, proving to Kakashi that he was a brick wall. The jounin then explained Sakura that what Naruto was talking about, the monkey-style, was actually a real taijutsu style. He then allowed Naruto explain in detail. After her brief informal session, Sakura learned that this style mainly based on power, flexibility and irrational strikes. She had the first two requirements but her last one only came during her 'wrath of a woman' session. Given that she has no clue what she does at that moment, she needed guidance. Naruto's solution was simple he would just have to force that part of her out again by imitating their last arguments.

He asked Kakashi if that would be a good solution. Now Kakashi would love to the reenactment of the moment but decided an easier way then all the verbal insults. He whispered in Naruto's the word 'Makura', which was another trigger for Sakura. A dumbfounded Naruto repeated the word out loud and soon enough Sakura gave him a Herculean punch in return. It didn't take him long to connect the dots, thus after finding the code word for her power activation, he used it to get her to hit him ten times, hoping that she felt the sensation enough to recognize it. Of course, this might have worked if he had told her previously about the plan, like Sasuke pointed out clearly, but he didn't and it took him ten additional hits to get that sensation.

* * *

All this happened within the first hour of their sparing exercise. By the second hour they had visitors. Sarutobi Asuma and his group, the team 10, composed of Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji dropped by. Asuma had selected the same field for their three day survival training session and was surprised to see Kakashi and his group there. Thus team 7 took a small break to chat with team 10. Well it was mainly Naruto, Sakura, Ino and Asuma. Chouji was more interesting on munching his chips, while Shikamaru took a nap and Sasuke kept of sparing with Kakashi, not giving the jounin the opportunity to join the chat.

Ino being Sakura's eternal rival on the conquest of Uchiha declared that she had mastered a new jutsu and that her team was now perfectly in synchronization unlike Sakura's, which turned their verbal feud on. This was interrupted by Naruto who although didn't know Ino enough congratulated on her luck, declaring that he on the other hand had a conceited bastard on one side while a overly demanding Uchiha fan girl on the other. Ino seeing that the comment pissed Sakura, decided to join in and share his pain so that she could use it against her rival in the future. Naruto wasn't that dumb though, he clearly pointed out her plot. He also declared that given she is also a Uchiha fan girl, she most likely is the same as Sakura, pointing all the things he thought Sakura did to him in the morning to get on his nerves. Ino immediately reacted to that as she didn't wish to be compared to the 'forehead-girl'.

"Hey, just because I am a girl doesn't mean I am like her. I for one take my shinobi career seriously, it is my primary and main objective in life, everything else comes after it. I don't give a damn about social status either, if it is effective I will learn it", said the blond haired kunochi.

"You mean you wouldn't mind practicing high angled kicks with me, even though we don't know much of each other? Wow, I guess I was wrong then. Sakura must be one of a kind to impose so many restrictions. God why couldn't I have you instead of her in my team, at least I would have someone who wouldn't complain or whine about all day", replied Naruto.

"If it is effective, I have no problem with it. I am always up for learning new things, show it to me and I can guarantee you that not only will I learn it, but I will also make better kicks then Fore-head girl here", answered Ino.

This angered Sakura more as now Ino was gaining favors in her own team. She silently reminded her, what was in stake by doing those high-kicks, but Ino stuck to her word. She really didn't care about such conservative beliefs, because she was a modern girl.

To prove her point, she asked Naruto the steps she must perform and did it without any hesitation. Of course her legs weren't as slim or long as Sakura's but she was a gutsy girl. She asked Naruto if he would mind giving her a few private taijutsu lesson when he was free, which even took him by surprise. She explained that unlike Sakura she didn't have the luxury of having such helpful teammates. Shikamaru and Chouji where good in team work, but very lazy when it came to training, so she tried to gain those experiences where ever she could. Unfortunately, Naruto told her he really didn't have such free times. If he did he would have gladly helped her. Ino thanked him anyway, while Sakura was about to explode on what she was seeing. Never in her life would she have expected, Ino asking Naruto's assistance and Naruto agreeing to it. She really didn't like their interaction and decided to break it up by adding in that this situation was promising for her, as it meant Sasuke would be free for her alone. That was enough to spark another verbal assault between the two girls.

Seeing that they were at their bizarre war over Sasuke again and that Sakura won't budge from her break, Naruto decided to talk to Asuma who was sitting by his other two pupils watching Kakashi and Sasuke in action.

"Say Asuma-san, since all three of your pupils are busy, would you mind sparing with me? I could really use the assistance", asked the boy.

"Erm, why don't you spar with Kakashi then? I am sure he is good enough to take on two of you at a time", asked Asuma, as he puffed his cigarette.

"The coincided Uchiha bastard won't allow that. Besides both of us together would become a handful for him. Come one, how about you versus me? I promise I won't hit you hard, ok?" asked again Naruto with a sad puppy expression.

"I am sorry Naruto, but I cannot interfere with the development of your team. You must address this problem to Kakashi, if you are not getting enough time, you have the right to demand some", explained Asuma.

"… I guess everyone is the same when it comes to me huh? Oh well I tried, I guess I better go and train by myself then. It's much better then asking for help and I already know what the rest of his training are anyway", said Naruto disappointed, as he started to walk away.

Kakashi seeing Naruto leave stopped him immediately stating that the training wasn't over and that he should stop Sakura from arguing with Ino and get her back into their training. This of course wasn't much welcomed by Naruto.

"You want to spar with Sasuke, fine. You want me to spar with Sakura, also fine. Now you want me to be your freaking baby-sit her too? Not fine! I am sorry Kakashi-sensei, but I didn't become a genin to baby-sit another genin. I am willing to help, but as long as they want it. I am not going to lower myself and beg to them to help them. I have better things to do then to do that. I know the training schedule now, so I know what to train on by myself, since no one seem to be interested in training with me. I will see you when I need something, till then ciao", said the boy, as he made one more step towards the exit.

"Naruto you can't just do that, I know you can train by yourself. This session is to get you guys to bond better and become better team wise. Besides, you still have about thirty minutes left on the sparing exercise, who would train that with?" replied Kakashi.

"Before giving me the lecture about your teamwork, maybe you should remind it to the ones who need to understand it. As for sparing, you expect me to spar with Miss 'I will train Sasuke and not Naruto' over there? I got a better chance sparing with a raccoon then her, but let us stop, why go to insults, when I can have this: kage bunshin. See, I got this thing I can use to spar with and you know the best thing about it? I can punch it and kick it however I like and it still won't complain. Watch!" said Naruto as he punched his own shadow clone with all his might, followed up with a multiple combo the clone took all the hits without collapsing.

"You managed to learn it in two days? How?" asked a dumbfounded Kakashi.

"No I learned it the night you gave it to me. It was easy the old man gave me all the needed instructions. As for the one you gave, I haven't got it to the way I want to use it yet, but I should be within a few days. Till then I guess I will go with the way most other use it. That is like this, now ciao and enjoy your teamwork", said Naruto, as he used shunshin in combination with leaves to teleport himself out of the training field, just before deactivating his shadow clone.

"_No way, he also mastered the shunshin in a single night! This kid is simply full of surprise, but damn, why did he have to leave now. This team seriously lacks bonding…"_ thought Kakashi, as he was still recovering from his first shock.

"I see that you got quite a few impressive students Kakashi, but as impressive as they are they are missing the aspect of teamwork and team bonding even more. Maybe you should do what I am doing and take them on a survival camping trip for two nights. It's just a suggestion, think of it as a repayment for the harm I did, coming here with my group", said Asuma who followed their discussion.

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for the idea. Well better get back to the two others, this one can handle him self. He just needs to get some fresh air to cool himself … I hope", replied Kakashi.

* * *

Unfortunately for Kakashi, it would take two days for Naruto to cool himself and even that was mainly because he needed to exchange his given jutsu scroll for another. During that time Naruto trained all alone with only the assistance of his kage bunshin. He added elements of Kakashi's exercise to his own and even took them to an extreme level. He turned the spraining exercise to a continuous non-stop three hours of live action. The kinobori exercise was now five hours. In total he was training fifteen hours per day.

Four of those hours were concentrated on the shunshin and okaen. For the shunshin, he achieved his goal by the start of the second day, when he realized that he could use the silent wind as a substitute for leaves when teleporting. Since it was invisible and hardly noticed by anyone, he could easily use it to trick his opponent and appear out of nowhere.

The progression on completing the okaen was helped by Sakura's chakra training advice. Thanks to it he came up with a temporary solution that would go by trial and error. He figured if the range of the okaen is dependent by the concentration of his fiery chakra then what he had to do is find the exact output that would cover five meters. Doing this his jutsu still won't be complete but he can still use it with assurance, later one when he has mastered chakra manipulation he would be able to do any range or intensity he wished but for now this was sufficient. To help himself he drew a circle around him at a radius of five meters and encircled it with rocks. Then he kept on trying the okaen till he reached the flames reach exactly five meters and memorized the amount. He then kept on using it at that amount until it became second nature to him.

This solution was great for him, as mastering chakra manipulation was not an easy task. He was doing great at kinobori but that was also like his current okaen, meaning that it was based on one chakra output at all time. He was certain that a master could manipulate their chakra at will. This would allow them to counter any obstacles, even say trying to walk over an area that required a constant fluctuation of the output and he was far from that.

Of course, as he was improving so were the others, mainly Sasuke who benefited greatly from sparing with Kakashi. By being there he also benefited on learning the 4 D-rank jutsus faster. Although Naruto mastered his first, it was Sasuke who would claim the title of the fastest learner. The Uchiha was the first to master the shinjuu zanshu then move into kanashibari, as Sakura still hadn't finished with the kage shuriken. She also being present got the benefit of second place and took the shinjuu zanshu, because Naruto was penalized for missing two days of team training, which left him with her jutsu.

However that being said the one who got the short end of the straw was Sakura. Without Naruto there she didn't get any help on her taijutsu development. Kakashi was too busy sparing with Sasuke and she was too afraid to displease the love of her life to ask for their assistance. By the second day she was starting to what Ino meant about her being lucky to get support from a guy like Naruto. Without him around she couldn't advance further her understanding of the monkey style or it's techniques. She had to admit, even though she didn't like the name, it kind of suited her. She hoped he would be back soon she was already getting board of using a tree as her opponent.

As said earlier upon his return he was punished and that punishment came from two fronts. Kakashi refused to give him another jutsu scroll for a day and he was told that should he miss again this punishment would reapply. Thus his two day hiatus ended. The one who was really happy about this was of course Sakura, who now put more effort into her training. This new Sakura took Naruto by surprise, as he was expecting her to be her usual complaining self. He figured she was doing this because of Ino. It's something he never understood in girls, but at least now he had another button to press on her when she wasn't cooperating. A little add-ins about how Ino would be delighted to train with him was enough to light up his pink haired compatriots.

* * *

At the end of the day's training, Kakashi announced his two nights of survival exercise plan. It was to get them to bond as a team, as teamwork wasn't really high during their team training schedule. Sure, Naruto and Sakura were getting good at working together, but Sasuke was always on a world apart and his big ego wasn't appreciated by Naruto either. They were more like rivals then teammates and although they may work together in assignments, they simply couldn't stand each other in other things. As for Sakura, let's just say that adding Sasuke in the equation always meant total teamwork breakdown between her and Naruto. So as Asuma had proposed him, Kakashi decided to go with the jounin's idea. After all, Asuma was most likely the best genin teacher in Konoha. He made a living out of training them and the current team 10 was his fifth assignment in the domain.

Unlike Asuma however, Kakashi wasn't going to make this a small camping trip in training area 60. No, he knew that if he wanted these three brats to work together, he would have to put them in perilous situation and the answer for that was always the forest of death. As the location's name indicated it was the most dangerous forest surrounding Konoha, a virtual jungle with live predators and eerie scenery. He made it even tougher by adding some restrictions to this special training. First, they couldn't bring any camping equipments other then their cloths they wore and weapons they would carry in missions. Second, they had an injured member, who would be played by him so that he can watch them in action without being able to offer any support.

He would also like a leader to rise from the group and coordinate their actions and they would have to choose it democratically between the three. Obviously Sasuke, being the front man for everything in his life, decided to nominate himself for the job and Sakura being his bewitched admirer voted him. Naruto who already knew the outcome of the democratic leadership didn't even bother to vote, as it didn't matter. He knew that if Sasuke told Sakura to ditch herself in a pool of mud, she would most likely do it. Of course, both Kakashi and himself knew that Sasuke was biting a pie bigger then himself, but they went with it anyway. There is a saying that a person learns from their mistakes then being taught out of the mistake, they just hoped it worked for the Uchiha and his fan girl.

The best options would have been to have Naruto play that role, sure he didn't have any experience on the given field, but neither did the two others. On the other hand, thanks to his intense training rituals he had the most experience on sleeping in the wild and living in the wild. He could easily implement them to make their situation better. After they were given a small map of their field of play, Naruto pretty much had an idea what to do. Sakura was feelings tense, while Sasuke was a bit worried but he wasn't going to show it to the others. To him a shinobi never shows his fears, it is a weakness and he as an Uchiha cannot have such fears.

This was another aspect that differentiated him with Naruto. Sasuke obeyed the codes like the bible. Naruto is a breaker of codes, as he wouldn't hesitate breaking them if it involved a good reason.

As for Kakashi, he just hoped he didn't overcomplicate his life. Before the members left for the night, he gave Naruto an interrogation look trying to understand why he didn't oppose the selection of the Uchiha. He was still perplexed on how this young boy's mind worked. If there was one conclusion he could come up with it would that Naruto was a rational boy with a highly irrational mind. You could never tell what he had in mind but you know he had something and even that is if you knew him enough. If there was something Kakashi wished in ten years time, it would be to never end up facing him in battle. He was already pulling rabbits out of his head now, by then he will also have the physical and shinobi skills to outclass him in every possible way. It kind of reminded him of his sensei that was another man Kakashi wished he would never have to face in actual battle. That guy also was cunning and highly irrational, but in the end his plans always came up as winners.

Thus, each members of team 7 parted their ways perplexed on how they would approach the situation that awaited them tomorrow, even the teacher.

End of chapter 3

* * *

A/N: Alright hope this does it for now. I know I didn't manage to complete the goal I had setup for this chapter, but after 16 pages I came to realize that it would take two chapters to complete that work. So the next chapter will be on the survival training trip, which will have some hilarious events like this one. It will also have a quick summery of their D-rank missions before the wave arc. Then we will go into the Konohamaru part by having Naruto blackmail Sandaime into giving them the famous Wave arc mission, while getting Konohamaru gain interest in Naruto. 

As for this chapter, yes it is out of the original storyline but it was necessary. Needed it to add some Son Goku like Naruto aspect to the storyline, some jokes similar to what Toriyama gave us in the beginning of Dragon Ball (arguably the best part). Unfortunately (damn haven't I used this word a lot this chapter) unlike Mr. Toriyama I cannot go too much onto sexually explicit jokes, or will force me to rate this story M-rated or even worst. We also see many struggles between the team, which is what most of my reviewers like. I guess that what comes from a 22 year old. We don't use physical weaknesses to limit our characters but psychological weaknesses. Hope this also answered some of the critics between the NaruSaku storyline (some people just want the poor girl to fry in hell don't they). I also used a bit of NaruIno to get the main pairing a thrill (Guess what I plan to use NaruTema to boast the NaruSaku relationship too laughs evilly. Sorry I didn't use Shikamaru much, but his time will come. Sasuke will also have his time to shine, but he will get stomped a lot too, so Sasuke fans don't take this as a bashing. R&R please and keep them coming, I need motivation you know? Shingen


	4. Chapter 4

**Will of Fire**

Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto, so I don't own him.  
Legend: "": quote, "_italic_": thought, _italic_: Japanese word, (): translation/explication, underline: techniques (check the end for invented techniques).

Chapter 4: Jungle boy at the forest of death

It was a bright sunny day as team 7 assembled for their latest venture: surviving the forest of death for the next three days. Kakashi was late as usual, this time by an hour and by now the team was pretty certain their teacher did it on purpose. After all, he has already demonstrated that he could arrive in time when he wished. Luckily for today, he didn't make them wait any longer, the tension was pretty high already.

Kakashi wasn't in mood for games either. He had enough with Uchiha Sasuke's lack of team cooperation. At first, given his circumstance, he gave him the soft approach. He was very lenient of his actions and hoped that by doing that the Uchiha would gain some confidence to trust him and his views, but this approach has clearly failed. Now he was going to apply the hard approach. He had already warned him that there will consequences for his actions, both direct and indirect. He would lead the direct ones while Sasuke himself caused the indirect ones.

In fact, the 'democratic' team leadership selection, which was hardly democratic in not purely bias, was set as a final test and punishment for the Uchiha. Unfortunately, Sakura proved his wrong once more. He was certain that this time she would have vouched for Naruto due to his help or at least use her judgment to force Sasuke to work for the job, but alas old habits are hard to change. He also hoped Sasuke would have used his judgment and realized that he was ill-equipped and unsuited for such role, but given his arrogance it was also hard to expect. Sasuke should have none that he didn't know his team to lead them. He also was upset on Naruto for not opposing Sasuke's leadership knowing full well how it may end up, but he was least of his concern. Sakura's action made his decision to not even vote somewhat understandable.

So now it was all up to Kakashi to give the Uchiha his hard lesson. Then again, he was certain Naruto had something in mind too, possibly pure humiliation after Sasuke failed his task, but given that they were in the forest of death this would too risky to be allowed. He decided to hit the bricks right on the onset, questioning the Uchiha's motives. He first asked him how he planned to organize his men, a question that took Sasuke by surprise.

Sasuke felt threatened by the question. He knew he wasn't ready for the job, but it was something he had to do. Sasuke wasn't always arrogant, when he was younger he was kind and friendly, but two things would alter his life for ever. First was the constant pressure or living up to his brother in the eyes of his father and the clan. Uchiha Itachi was declared a prodigy at birth and had an exemplary career. He became a genin at age 7 and a chuunin at age of 10. By 13 he was already an ANBU captain. So it is understandable why Sasuke was so adamant about getting strong and being the number one. All his life he had to live in the shadows of his brother and the only way he could get some attention from his father was to match Itachi's feat at best of his abilities. This meant to become best at every challenge he is given.

The second reason for his demeanor had to do with Itachi's last action as a shinobi of Konoha. To measure his own capacity, he killed his entire clan with the exception of Sasuke, who he left alive to become an avenger. This event has traumatic effect on the younger brother, who due to the ruthlessness of his older brother had to relive the assassination of their parents by his hands. Itachi also happened to be his idol, thus the combining of all of these situations lead to the birth of the current Sasuke, a person who now only believes and seeks power for his vengeance. Someone, who doesn't believe any longer on things like trust, friendship and love, these things were taken away from him by his brother's betrayal. Now all it mattered to him was to get stronger and kill him with his own hands. This intention was even greatly influenced by the villagers' reaction, who first pitied him for his loss and then as the heir and sole survivor of the great clan hyped his abilities to a point that even he had a hard time living up to it. This made him somewhat insecure and at the moment Kakashi's question was giving him that same sensation.

He knew very well that he wouldn't be a good leader, he was too strict for his age, but Itachi was a good leader so he would have to be one too. Thus he unveiled his plan. They were to camp in an open field part of the forest. He did this according to the shinobi code book, which stated that a shinobi must avoid getting too deep into forest due to uncertainties and greater risk. He then designated each member's job. Since Kakashi was acting the injured member, he divided the task between the three of them. Of course given who he was he took the hardest job that is hunting food. He selected Sakura to gather the necessities to start a small campfire and put Naruto in charge of babysitting Kakashi. These decisions were of course all made based on his prejudices that Naruto was unreliable and Sakura equally unreliable but at least would be able to do a simple task as gathering wood. Sakura being who she is accepted her mission right away, even though she had the least experience amongst all of them when it came to wild-life and camping outdoors.

Kakashi however stopped them from following up those plans and immediately removed Sasuke as leader on the basis of lack of team knowledge and failure to identify their situation, which caught Sasuke off-guard as well as Naruto. He reminded the Uchiha of his warning and revealed that this was his punishment for his lack of team efforts during the training session. He then revealed that he would be choosing a leader since the team was still biased to be given a democratic selection and ordered Naruto to take over. Sasuke feeling cheated even before having a chance to prove him self contested the decision that Naruto couldn't be the leader since he missed forcefully two days of those trainings, thus equally showing a lack of team spirit. Kakashi reminded him that although Naruto did that, he was the only one who not any showed interest in working team but also was the only one to train Sakura at his own expense. Sasuke contested again that the jounin was being dictatorial and not democratic to which Kakashi added that having Sakura's vote isn't considered democratic when she vote for him even without asking for a reason why he thought he would be the best man for the job. Before Sasuke could contest again, the jounin cut him off again and asked Naruto to reveal his plan for their survival, thus partially ending the Uchiha's futile attempt.

Naruto was still in shock, he really wasn't expecting Kakashi pulling the checkmate on Sasuke like this. Especially not after all the exclusive sugar-coating he did to the Uchiha recently. He figured that the jounin probably did it, because he feared that Naruto would humiliate the star student beyond his recognition. Either that or he simply didn't want to live in Sasuke's master plan of survival that can be summed up as: all under the protection of the Uchiha and in the lion's den of the jungle. Either way he had to lead now. Kakashi asked Naruto the same question as he did to Sasuke to show that he was being fair.

* * *

Naruto's plan was of course much more different then Sasuke's. He didn't live by shinobi codes but his own instinct and knowledge. To his knowledge although Sasuke plan to camp on open ground was great it didn't suit their situation. It would have worked if they had the proper camping gear, but they didn't. Their biggest problem won't be facing predators but rather surviving the chilling nights that Konoha has and to do that they needed to go deeper into the jungle. The trees would act as a natural barrier for cold winds and a heaven from larger predators and groups of predators, who would be in a disadvantage due to freedom of movement that the area would restrict them. The best place to pass a night in a forest was either to sleep on the tree branches or find themselves caves or terrier left by other creatures. Given that Kakashi said he wouldn't be able to move without assistance, sleeping on the trees was out of the question. So he opted to find caves which according to the guide this forest had quite a few. 

His decision was contested by Sasuke who added that going deeper into forest meant that they would put themselves in greater risks, as smaller predators and usually the hardest to fight and track against. Naruto replied that although that was true, they would be under constant treat wherever they went in this forest, which meant that they would have to set traps around their location anyway, being in a cave would solve one of their greater problems which he again noted to be surviving the cold. So unless Sasuke could come up with a solution for that, they will stay with the current solution, which Kakashi approved, as Naruto had met his conditions and had well justified his reason.

When it came to dividing tasks, Naruto also corrected Sasuke's mistakes. He put Sakura in charge of guarding Kakashi, as well as helping Sasuke setting traps after he had found a suitable cave they can take refuge. He would take care of food as he has a tendency to hunt in the wild more then the others. Before Sasuke could contest again, Naruto added that Sasuke's mission was most important of all, as he would have to find them a home and then find the necessities to start the fire and help Sakura with the traps after that if she needed. He explained the reason why he wanted Sasuke to do the additional job was because he was the most versatile and Sakura was ill-equipped to venture alone in the forest given her lack of experience in the domain. With him doing these, he would be free to hunt for food with a peaceful mind, as by doing so he cleared the necessity for him hunt nearby in case one of the members ended up in trouble. Sakura would have Kakashi to help her out in case of such situation and Sasuke being a lone-wolf was certainly able to handle himself.

This pretty much sealed Sasuke's lips without realizing that Naruto had just tricked him into cooperating by venting how good he was at working alone, which happened to be true. Kakashi was pretty happy with the settlement also. This is one of the reason why he preferred Naruto for the job, the boy knew how to play his cards well and he approved his decisions once again. He was surprised to see him apply the old 'getting away with compliments' and get away with it, especially on Sasuke who is supposed to be a genius. Sasuke's case was a bit different though, he really didn't mind anymore about the leadership if he got the top action spot. He figured Kakashi was right and he wasn't ready for such offer yet, if he hangs along he should be able to learn a few tricks from Naruto and apply it when his leadership skills would be really valued. After all, given that Itachi was a bigger anti-social then him, he must have not been the team leader of his genin squad. Then again the teacher was an Uchiha and probably just gave it to him for being the son of the leader and a prodigy.

Thus the day went as expected without much trouble. Naruto managed to catch four large fishes, enough to satisfy each persons hunger. Sasuke found a livable cave and a gathered the woods as well as light the fire. Sakura set most of the traps while being right by Kakashi. Thus day one ended peacefully, but one shouldn't put their guards down as chaos returned the next day.

* * *

It started during the night while they were sleeping. Being in a cave, each member had their own little space. By the morning however, one the members had invaded the privacy of another. The member in question was Haruno Sakura while the victim wasn't Uchiha Sasuke but rather Uzumaki Naruto. How did the pink haired kunochi found her self near him? She had no idea either, but Kakashi suspected it was due to the cold night. Naruto being the member who releases the most heat due to his so called curse was the best candidate to feel warmer. Thus when the members woke up in the morning, a scream was heard around the forest. However, it wasn't from Sakura but rather Naruto who found him self cuddling her in return and was spooked by the idea. Sakura who woke up thanks to his scream let out her own when she found herself near him. 

"You pervert, do you have no shame? How dare you do this to me in my sleep?" was her first comment before realizing that she was the one in error, but the dagger was already thrown.

"Excuse me? You're the one trespassing here and I am the one accused? I guess it must be a family thing, accusing whoever they feel like it. I should have known something like this coming from the Haruno," replied back an angry Naruto, as he got up and exited his way.

His words left Sakura confused who didn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about. Sasuke who had also woken up by this time also didn't know what the story was about. Kakashi didn't know much either, but he went to enquire about it later in the day.

* * *

For the moment the group had other matters to attend, especially when Naruto didn't wish to talk about it. Although he was pissed, Naruto didn't let it affect his role. For today, the plan would be a bit different. First, he planned to hunt for a wild boar with Sasuke's assistance. He figured since he finally started to get accepted by the Uchiha this was the best time to solidify their relationship. Sakura was asked again to watch over Kakashi, but also to gather some fruits around the nearby trees. As luck would have it the cave that Sasuke found was surrounded by fruit trees and given that the place Sasuke and Naruto were hunting was only 500 meters away from there, Naruto figured it was safe enough to allow Sakura to explore around. After all, she also needed the experience.

The hunt went well. It was true that either of them alone would have probably caught a boar on their own, but working together allowed them to develop their team work. It was the first time that both were fighting together and realizing that two is better then one and it was much more fun. Especially given that boars tend to be in groups and are hard to persuade from not hoard out. So getting one to be alone was a challenging task. Of course, if they wanted they could just charge in and massacre the whole group with their shinobi skills, but that is a waste of nature's resources, not to mention that something like that could attract potential predators, like scavengers. Besides there is no fun in massacring a troop of pigs, you gain no experience from it, as any fool with enough weapons can do the same.

Their work took them about four hours but the experience was worth it. They got to track, spy and then capture as they would done in case of a real track and capture mission. The best part was that it allowed each of them to accept the other. Sasuke finally admitted that although was a dumbass socially, he was pretty darn good when it came to combat related situations. While Naruto admitted that although Sasuke is a jerk most of the time, he is reliable and trustworthy when it comes to his duties.

Sasuke also got his first lesson in the ways of Naruto. Given that his plan had worked perfectly yesterday and was in the same trail today, he asked him how he managed to came up with the plan and knew that it would work out.

"I didn't know it would work out, there is no guarantee it would have succeeded. There is no plan that is full proof. All I did is to trust in my team and their abilities. That is what means to be a leader. If I cannot trust you guys and your abilities then anything I plan will be useless. Also if you guys cannot trust me then you won't be committed to it either. So everything depends on trust and knowing each other. That was your error. Your plan wasn't bad it isn't much different from mine. But you couldn't trust us and that lead you to turn yours into a one man show, because you felt that we needed to be protected by you at all times," replied Naruto.

"How did you come up with such enlighten statements? You really are weird you know? One second you are a total dumbass and the next you talk like a genius," asked Sasuke.

"I didn't come up with them. I learned them from Yondaime's memorabilia. He is my idol you know? I memorized every page of it. It is the only sets of rules I follow," said Naruto with a smile.

* * *

Upon their return, they found Kakashi sitting in the cave reading his favorite book. When questioned upon where Sakura was, he revealed that she was still exploring around, which in return prompted him to ask Naruto what his morning's comment meant. Naruto at first tried to avoid the matter but he got cornered by both men and had to confess. So he told them about his little incident about the Haruno treatment he received for saving their daughters from some bullies when he was four year old. After hearing the story it was understandable why Naruto avoided her contact.

However that being said Kakashi reminded Naruto that the ones to blame for this is not Sakura but her parents and that he shouldn't hold it on her. After all, she was also a child then and at that age you really can't ask them to understand the actions of their parents' or remember them. Naruto felt he was being lectured again and he hated being lectured, it annoyed him. He had already learned to not take these things to heart by now, if he hadn't he would have become a psychopath with the life he had. So before Kakashi went to a level to make him fall asleep he tried to stop him. Of course being the great lecturer he is Kakashi just wouldn't shut it, until they heard Sakura scream in disgust.

Now Naruto didn't like Sakura, but her scream was enough to send him hurling towards her like a bulldozer. Kakashi and Sasuke were surprised by his reaction. The only explication they could conclude is that Kakashi's lectures really worked on Naruto, which even surprised the jounin. The alternative was impossible to imagine. Even Naruto didn't know why he was pulling the 'Forest Gump' for her. He simply couldn't stop his body from stop running till he found her. He didn't even know how he found her, but he figured that it must have been the responsibility of being the leader. It would take Sasuke a lot more time to find them.

Upon reaching the location, Naruto couldn't stop from bursting himself to laugh like a madman. There she was sitting scared with a two meter giant millipede sliced in two and still wiggling. Apparently Sakura spotted it while collecting some more fruits. Fearing it to be a predator, she took out her giant fuuma shuriken (evil windmill shuriken) and sliced it in two, but since she had forgotten that such insects tend to wiggle even after being dead, she took it for being still alive. Thus she thought it had simply multiplied and was now going to avenge itself upon her, which is when she unleashed her famous scream.

"This isn't funny Naruto!" yelled the kunochi.

"Of course not, it's just a simple case of you getting scared of a bug. God wait till I tell the others the face you made to the others. I am sure Ino will be giggling about it. Oh do I see little Miss Haruno's anger rising, man you really are turning red like tomato. I have to admit Sakura you look really cute when you are angry. Maybe you should be like that in front of …" replied a sarcastic Naruto, as he got cut by one of Sakura's Herculean punches sending him flying on a nearby tree.

"Damn it, you really need to control yourself. What is with you? You hit me even when I am complimenting you. I don't even know why I bothered to run towards upon hearing your scream. Maybe I should have waited till you begged for assistance like a little girl. Next time don't bother screaming I won't be coming to save your butt," yelled back an angry Naruto, who again took his leave.

Sakura also didn't know why she hit him, she figured it was impulsive. She wanted apologize for her actions but he vanished just as fast as he came to her rescue. Promising herself to apologize for her action, she began to pick up the fruits and her weapon that she had left on the terrain. However her troubles of the day were far from over. Just as she was about to leave the area, she heard large steps. Figuring it to be from Naruto, who was probably trying to get back at her by scaring her again, she ignored it and even teased him claiming to not be afraid by his futile attempts. But the steps kept on approaching, hading enough she decided to give him a piece of her mind.

Of course, when she approached the sound, what she found wasn't Naruto but rather a large gorilla. Seeing the black beast, she screamed again and ran the opposite way and the beast took pursuit. Naruto heard her scream, but ignored her this time. He wasn't going to fall for her false calls twice. Thus the poor girl was left on her own. She ran till she found herself falling on a muddy pond, which made her scream again. Now she was trapped and the beast took that advantage to grab her. He liked what he caught and decided to take her back with him. By this time Sakura was screaming for her life, pleading Naruto to save her.

"Naruto help! I am sorry, please save me. Please this thing is going to eat me. I am not making it up. Oh my god no! Please let me go, I promise to be a nice girl from now on. I don't want to die and become the food of an ugly ape. I mean good ape, nice ape. Naruto! Sasuke-kun! Someone please save me I beg you!" screamed Sakura on top of her lungs.

Now Naruto really wasn't in mood for this, but her plea seemed real. He was loosing the sound of her voice, which meant that she was going the opposite direction he was. Her last scream must have awakened the whole forest too, so being captured by one of the larger creatures wasn't out of the league. So again he ran towards like a madman. This time, Sasuke heard enough of her voice to track her too, but he was far behind.

Upon arriving at the location, Naruto again couldn't stop from laughing. Here was Haruno Sakura covered in mud and the unhappy capture of an adult gorilla. The ape stood there trying to understand why the blond haired boy was laughing at him.

"Wow, when I said you act like an ape I really didn't expect you would buy into it. So when is the wedding with King Kong? I would love to attend it," asked a laughing Naruto.

"Naruto this really isn't the time to joke. You make fun of me all you want later, but get me out of his clutches now!" yelled back an angry Sakura waving her fist in the air.

"Why would I risk my life to rescue you? At least not enough to wrestle with King Kong here just to be able to make fun of you, I can do that already. I think its better you accept your new role. Don't worry I heard they treat their women well, you get to eat bananas and leaves all day", added a sitting Naruto.

This continued for the next two minutes as Sakura tried to make a deal with her companion so he would free her from this giant hairy ape, who was sitting there confused about the interaction displayed by the two humans. He didn't know if this boy was her man or not, in which case by gorilla tradition he would have to challenge him for her rights. Sakura first proposed a date, which prompted Naruto to encourage King Kong to run away with her, because there was no way he would agree to date her even if the sky started falling. Seeing that her charm wouldn't work on him, she asked him what he would like in return for his service.

Now Naruto felt like they were in business, he wanted her to perform a 180 degree side-kick and hold it for 10 seconds in front of her mother. He wanted to break what he concluded to be the 'Haruno tradition'. Any other day Sakura would have unleashed her full fury upon him for such request but today she was vulnerable, so she agreed. That is after making him look and feel really bad by running tears from her eyes and a sad puppy face act. She even added that since she will have to do this, he will have to take her as his love interest as she will most likely lose her dignity. She knew now that Naruto would do anything to avoid such fate for himself and she was right. He decided to alter his demand immediately. They finally came to a deal where Sakura would perform high kicks in battles at Naruto whim. She feared the consequences of her promise greatly but at the moment she had this big hairy ape to get away from.

With the deal settled, Naruto got up and challenged King Kong for the rights of Sakura. At first, Sakura thought he really was out of his mind for his act. After all, who tries to demand a gorilla for a fight, given that they don't understand a word of human verbal communication? But, apparently gorillas did, or at least understood with the involvement of physical monkey like imitation Naruto was doing. Upon accepting the challenge the two challengers warmed up for battle, while Sakura found herself tied with vines and hung up from a tree. The battle was short lived, as Naruto didn't waste a second and knocked King Kong out with his janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo) in combination with shunshin (body flicker), much to Sakura's amazement. Here was a shrimp of a human against a seven foot gorilla and yet the shrimp knocked out his opponent without even a sweat.

Before she could ask him what he did, as what she saw was simply three quick movements which started with a flash, Sasuke appeared from the woods. He had finally caught up with them. He had been searching them for a while now, first he followed Sakura's voice as guidance but then it died down, so he had to go with conventional methods, which took much more time. The whole ordeal had lasted six minutes but felt like an eternity. Upon finding them however, Sasuke confused. Here was Naruto on top of a big gorilla and Sakura hung up from a tree with vines. He figured what happened but was still confused how these two managed to get this beast in their quarrels. After considering that the thought would be a waste of his time and money, he simply dismissed the even by giving them one of his patented 'you guys are weird' look and then freed Sakura, who was exhilarated upon seeing that he had come to rescue her, much to his displeasure.

After being freed Sakura and Sasuke headed back to the cave while Naruto waited for King Kong to wake up. Sakura tried to persuade him, as she figured the ape would be very angry being beaten by a brat but Naruto wouldn't listen. He told her that he didn't want him to have ill-will of his actions, especially considering that it was her screams that got King Kong involved to their story. Seeing his stubbornness upon the subject, she abandoned her plea. She was starting to see him as a very perplexed character, one that she had a hard time understanding, as he had very contradicting personality. His current action reminded her of the hero of 'the jungle book'. A person who was apart from society but very much into the jungle life, thus she secretly referred him as the 'jungle boy'.

Upon their return they were met with by Kakashi's swift regard, who was still reading his famous book. Unknown to them, he had been very worried and was using the book the calm his emotions after all he wouldn't want them to see him in panic. Sakura told him, everything that had happened while skipping some important details such as the deal she made with Naruto and her thoughts on him. Upon hearing her story and especially about her getting scared of a bug and getting caught by a gorilla who took her as a prime candidate for his harem, Sasuke and Kakashi both laughed on their turn, much to her chagrin. Naruto returned after a while claiming that he had made a new ally in the forest and as a gift, King Kong gave them a pack of bananas. He sounded weird as usual, as only he could come up with something like making a treaty with gorillas, but by now they knew him enough to disregard that aspect of him. He was simply their weird shinobi teammate who was full of surprises.

* * *

As the day progressed into the night, the team felt more confident about each other. Tonight happened to be the night of a new moon so the sky was dark and filled with shinning stars. The group decided to spend most of the night watching the sky, an idea sparked none other then Naruto, who again surprised everyone with his interest. Sakura even got further confirmation that Naruto probably was a bona fide 'jungle boy'. This happened when Sakura was spooked upon the howling of the wolves, which Naruto not only recognized but explained why they did so. In fact, he pretty much laughed at the fact that the forest of death didn't live up to its name. Even Kakashi had to admit the forest was a bit to much nice to them, after all he did expect more then a simple encounter from a gorilla who aren't really a danger unless you happen to look for trouble yourself. None of the wolves attacked, nor did the snakes, panthers, jaguars, leopards, tigers. Even scavengers didn't approach their way. The team was somewhat disappointed that their traps were never put to use.

As the team settled down for sleep, they felt assured that they most likely wouldn't receive any visitors the next day either. This time however, Sakura made sure to stay as far as possible from Naruto. However, during the night they did have visitors. The cave had a small tunnel dug deep within it, nearby where Sakura slept. It was too small to be considered dangerous so the group had ignored it and it served as an additional ventilation system. Well during the night a group of foxes, the original habitant of the cave ventured back in trough it, as the unsuspecting group slept in comfort. Now foxes were known to be human friendly, since they didn't like to take on people who were much bigger then them, but someone like Sakura or any other children from Konoha wouldn't know this, because thanks to the Kyuubi, foxes were generally portrayed as evil by the villagers. This group was surprised to find visitors in their home, but they welcomed them anyhow, especially when they found just like Sakura that best way to get warm in this forest was to sleep near a blond haired blue eyed shinobi.

Of course that being said nothing could stop Sakura from releasing one of her high pitched scream the next morning as she woke up. Being the first to wake up, she noticed the visitors who were all piled up around Naruto. Her scream woke up the rest of the cast. Sasuke and Kakashi thought it was a repeat of yesterday's event. Naruto woke up too, but he was drowsy so it took him more time to get up. When he did, he found himself surrounded by red furs of a dozen foxes and a chibi fox resting on his blond hair. It made look him really cute with the foxes gathered around him and all of them yawning at the same time, almost like a family. But as good as the picture was it wasn't enough to calm Sakura who was really shaken.

Unfortunately Naruto didn't share her concerns. Neither did Kakashi, while Sasuke was pretty much indifferent about the situation. Instead she found him playing with them. The team tried to ignore the fact that a horde of foxes were following them. Since it was their last day, the group decided to just explore the forest before fishing for lunch and then take their leave after it. When it came to the fishing part, Naruto turned into a fun game thanks to the foxes who taught him a new way to fish. They use their tail as bait and given the same idea, Naruto came with his own version of it. He summoned a kage bunshin (shadow clone) and forced it to transform with henge (transform) into a monkey tail, which he thought would be better bait, and joined in the fun.

The only one who didn't like it was Sakura who at first thought Naruto really had a monkey tail, as it was moving on its own. Then again she didn't know he knew kage bunshin, neither did Sasuke. So when he showed them what he did to have a live tail attach to him like a belt, they were pretty much stunned.

Here was the kid who was last in class using what is known to be a jounin class jutsu and being very creative with it. When a curious Sasuke asked him how he stumbled upon such a jutsu, Naruto struggled to reply at first. He really wasn't good at lying, but he managed to come up with something. He told them about an incident similar to the Mizuki event, just that he changed the event to take the spotlights off of him and dated it about a year before. He claimed that as a gift for his small assistance and brave act the Hokage had granted him a jutsu of his choice. Given that the opponent he had delayed was using this jutsu, he request for and was granted it.

He even made them believe that part of his bad grades came due to concentrating on learning this jutsu instead of concentrating on what he was supposed to learn as an academy student. Having convinced his team with the lie, he went back to fishing to keep his story to a minimum, as one lie has tendency to spread more. If his goal was to divert attention he certainly managed to do it with his monkey tail's fishing skills. Within an hour he had caught enough of them to feed them along with the entire fox family. All this while having fun at the same time which is a lot to ask since fishing tends to be a boring activity.

His actions were enough to label his as the 'jungle boy' in Sakura's book. So from this day forward whenever Naruto wasn't around she would refer to him by this name. She didn't use it in front of him because even if she did he still wouldn't respond to it. These types of situations were where Naruto was at his weakest. Thus team 7 finally returned back to society after three days of survival in the wild. Kakashi had succeeded in his personal mission he had set out before the expedition. The team had settled their personal issues and became more cooperate as each member got a better inside of the others. Well more like each member got a taste of Naruto's bizarre personality. Now they were ready to begin working in the field.

* * *

Thus a day later, team 7 found themselves in their first D-rank mission. They were anxious to test their newfound skills in some action but instead what they got was labor work. Apparently all D-rank missions were jobs in the labor market, such as finding lost cats, working in farms, collecting trash, doing laundry, baby-sitting and other similar field works. The team had a mission per week, as each of these work was usually a weekly job. These missions were especially hard for Naruto who had to work extra hard as most of them involved working for the villagers and we know how those are. They would look for the slightest error from his part to complain, but the boy was resilient enough to not allow them such opportunities. When they weren't the team would spend their free weekdays training together. 

Within the third week both Sasuke and Naruto had mastered all of Kakashi's given D-rank jutsus. Sakura was still far behind, but she was still quite faster then the jounin had expected. Sasuke was also participating in sparing matches now. He still hesitates against Sakura, but gives in after a few of his grumps goes deaf ears. Against Naruto or Kakashi it was all out war. Of course both of his opponents would hold out without revealing it to him. They learned pretty quickly that Sasuke was excessively competitive. He just wouldn't get off your butt unless he felt he was superior to them. Naruto would lower his profile through training weights while Kakashi who had vast experience in the field and the art was a natural to faking his abilities.

Naruto still trained secretly at night, although it was hardly secret anymore as Sandaime, Kakashi and Sakura knew where he trained. Sasuke trained alone at night too, but not as extensively as him and certainly not at the same place. Sakura was also getting more active physically. She was even aggressive towards Sasuke when it came to sparing something the Uchiha would never expect her to do much less the others, but she was starting to enjoy her training. It made her feel less vulnerable, she was still far away from the others but now at least she felt confident enough to challenge on her own.

* * *

By the seventh week the team had completed their seventh D-rank mission and just had enough of them. Open their next meeting with the Hokage, Naruto complained for that lack of quality in their missions as well as waste of their talent. He along the other three requested a higher ranked mission, anything but a D-rank. The Hokage knew very well that he was probably right, but couldn't give them one due to their rank. That is until Naruto started to blackmail him. 

"Come on now old man, are you certain you can't give us a better mission. I mean you know we are being wasted here. You wouldn't want me to accidentally spill out that secret of ours now would you?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi and the others couldn't believe what was happening; this was a new level of boldness from Naruto. An attempt to blackmail the Hokage was extremely dangerous. If the man wanted he could have them imprisoned or even executed for such treats. Kakashi was certain he would get yelled by the Hokage thanks to Naruto now. Unlike them Sandaime was much more worried about Naruto revealing his secret loss to the blond haired genin due to his orioke (sexy centerfold). He was very ashamed about the defeat given he was undefeated till date and knew about a 1000 jutsus. Yet here he was defeated by a simple perverted henge, because of his perverted nature. If anyone learned about it, he would lose a lot of respect and thus he was at the mercy of this boy.

"Alright, you seem to be very determined to get a higher ranked mission. You also speak the truth that a team like yours isn't being used efficiently. So I will grant your team a C-rank mission. It's an escorting mission. The only problem is that the client won't be here for another two days and your mission doesn't start till another two. So I hope you will use your free time to learn a bit more about the country you will be escorting your client too," answered the Hokage, who's decision pretty much stunned the rest.

"_Did he just get blackmailed? What does Naruto know that is so great for the Hokage to simply accept his request?"_ wondered Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke, while Naruto simply smile in content.

* * *

However, their thoughts were interrupted when a chipmunk of a boy ran at the Hokage claiming today he would defeat him and become the Hokage before he tripped on his scarf and fell face first on the floor in front of Naruto, who found it extremely hilarious. The boy was quickly followed by a special jounin wearing a black sunglass referring him as 'young master'. The man later known as Ebisu checked the boy known as Konohamaru for any injuries, who happened to be Sarutobi's grandson. Konohamaru seeing Naruto making fun of his fall accused him for putting a trap to stop him from reaching the old man. Naruto didn't like the accusation so he grabbed the boy by his collar and yelled back only a blind fool would lay a trap for a chipmunk like him. 

Ebisu knowing who Naruto is and being one of the fervent believers that he was a bad influence to all young villagers especially his student yelled at him for touching the grandson of the Hokage with his dirty hands. To add more fire to the fuel Konohamaru dared him to punch him if he had any guts. Now being who he was he expected Naruto to let him get away unharmed just like every other people did. Unfortunately, Naruto didn't give a damn about his link to the Sandaime, so he got what he wished for, much to the horror of Ebisu.

Team 7 quickly left after the incident, well more like Kakashi grabbed Naruto and exited as he was about to shove his foot up Ebisu's face for his comment, the other two simply followed their teacher lead. The only one who was laughing at the situation was Sandaime who really enjoyed the action. As a grand father, Sarutobi never wanted Konohamaru to become spoiled. However, as his grand son pointed out, the villagers did not share his opinion. Naruto helped him by bringing Konohamaru back to earth, something his grand son hoped for it too.

Now he had another problem at hand. Shortly after the incident Konohamaru disappeared once more, most likely trailing Naruto. This was bad, Naruto had the potential to seriously knock out Konohamaru and wouldn't mind giving to him if he was pissed off, which his grand son was best at. He just hoped that Naruto wouldn't do something stupid and control himself.

By the time Konohamaru found Naruto, the team had already separated and he was all alone eating his lunch at Ichiraku Ramen. So when Konohamaru had done his reintroduction, Naruto was a bit calmer as his belly was full of his favorite food. Of course, nobody really knew what Konohamaru's real intention was except himself. So he totally caught the Uzumaki off guard when he asked him to teach him the orioke. Apparently he was one of the few who knew that his grand father had a weakness to the jutsu and wanted to learn to use it against him during his victorious battle against the old man. Naruto demanded the reason why he wanted to defeat his grand father and become so much.

Konohamaru unveiled his story where he reveals his disdain for the extra treatment the villagers give just because he happens to be the grandson of the Hokage. He feels that he is being ignored and being compared to his grand father rather then being aloud to be himself. So he wants to defeat his grandpa in which case he would gain the title of Hokage and they people will learn to appreciate him for who he is. His point was valid so Naruto decided to teach him the jutsu, which would take Konohamaru three days to learn.

During that time, team 7 was on break so Naruto could afford to spent time with him. The only thing Kakashi was asking them to do was to review a guide book of Wave country, the place where they would be escorting their client. As their third day approached Ebisu was looking for his student frantically. It had been three days that Konohamaru had managed to avoid him. He knew who to blame for this situation, it was all Uzumaki Naruto's fault. By the time they are finally found, Konohamaru had mastered his new jutsu and as a test he used it on Ebisu. The special jounin proved to be a worthy adversary as for the first time orioke had failed. However, the inventor of the jutsu had one just for him. Naruto had created the next generation of the orioke by combining the jutsu with tajuu kage bunshin (multiple shadow clones) to form the haremu (harem), which upon use proved that Ebisu was indeed a pervert, but a closet pervert rather then an open pervert.

After demolishing the special jounin's reputation in front of his student, Naruto finally grabbed Konohamaru and laid out the laws about his ambitions. First, he told him that just using the jutsu he learned and knocking out the Hokage wouldn't earn him the title, because if that was the case he would have been the next Hokage already. He gave him a detailed explication of being given the title and why his grand father is so popular, something that the young academy student never thought about.

"Being a Hokage isn't simply about being the strongest in the village. You can be stronger but you still won't get the title unless you can gain the villagers trust and prove to them that you will protect them with all your might. So instead of trying to beat the old man, train hard and get stronger, because you got a lot of competition ahead of you. There aren't going to be any shortcuts. If you want the Hokage name, you better be able to kick my ass first, because I have no intention of giving it away," said Naruto.

The lecture given Naruto motivated Konohamaru who now found a new purpose in life. Although he felt the new pressure he wasn't going to let Naruto look down on him. So on the spot he announced to him that he better watch his back since as of now they were rivals for the title. From his office the old Hokage watched on his crystal ball as the two new adversaries went their separate ways. He was a happy man today as once he was proven that no matter the difficulties the village faced his teachings still lived on in the new leaves of Konoha.

* * *

Two days later team 7 finally met their client. He was an old man called Tazuna and referred himself as the greatest bridge constructor of Wave country. He wasn't much impressed with his escort whom he called 'super brats' and called an excited Naruto, who was trilled by the fact that it would his first time outside of the village main gates, 'shrimp'. His comments didn't settle well with Naruto but he tried to ignore his comments and move on with the mission. He just wanted to get over with it as soon as possible, an opinion shared by the rest of the team. They also didn't like his constant negative bickering about the team's ability to protect them. He really wasn't going to be the happy camper one would expect him to be given the payment they would be receiving for the job. Still a mission was a mission, even if that meant that they would have to spent the whole week with this grumpy old man. Thus that evening team 7 departs for their first C-rank mission. If they would only knew what trouble lies ahead. 

End of chapter 4

* * *

A/N: Yay! I finally managed to write less then 15 pages and concluded what I was set out to do. Yes, this chapter is somewhat short, but no worries folks next chapter is where all the action starts and Naruto's worlds start to slowly tumble down piece by piece and he faces some real action and forced to live the harsher concepts and ideals of the life of a shinobi life. Introduction of Zabuza and Haku, as well as the demon brothers! So expect a lot of actions. I should have at least the first two fights with different plot line. In this chapter I tried to add I bit more about Naruto's way of life and beliefs, as well as the links that bonds team 7 members amongst themselves and I also got clear of the Konohamaru ordeal. Shingen. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Will of Fire**

Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto, so I don't own him.Special Disclaimer: Viewers discretion advised: couple of violent scenes and profanities can be found. 

Legend: "": quote, "_italic_": thought, _italic_: Japanese word, (): translation/explication, underline: techniques (check the end for invented techniques). 

Chapter 5: The Devil of the hidden Mist

It had been only a day since team 7 had started their first C-ranked mission and already the team was at its limits thanks to its client. Tazuna's constant bickering about every little thing was getting on the team's nerves. Especially for the most explosive member of the group: Uzumaki Naruto. He had already contemplated on killing him a dozen times and he felt he had every reason to do so. Tazuna was a loud perverted alcoholic and a complainer. If that wasn't enough he had also irritated him by calling a 'shrimp' and was teasing him to no end. So much that even Kakashi feared an imminent eruption from his hot headed student. This was a concern for him as even by now he was still unsure of Naruto's limit in power or if he even had any. This meant that in the most likely case, Naruto would end up killing their client before he could stop him, as it is much harder to stop an angry young man as irrational as Naruto.

However, that was the least of the jounin's worry, as he noticed that for a man who had hired four qualified shinobis for a simple escort mission Tazuna was highly anxious. Was he hiding something from them? Obviously he was way too nervous the little bandits they may encounter on route. Kakashi didn't know the answer yet but he intended to find out. For the moment he put extra effort to watch out for abnormalities. Sasuke being vigilant also noticed his sensei's concern and shared the same opinion, something was up in the air and he wasn't going to be the one to get caught with his guards down. On the other hand Sakura was too busy making sure Naruto didn't end their mission abruptly.

Tazuna was indeed anxious. He had purposely omitted the fact that he was a wanted man by a wealthy business tycoon and mob boss named Gato. The mobster had hired assassins from Kiri to end his life and he knew very well that neither he nor his village could afford the price for an escort protection of that level. So he opted to hide this fact to turn a possible B to A rank mission into a C rank mission. It was a great risk since first his protection wasn't assured with only one jounin and if the assassins attacked before they reached his village and they managed to survive, the team could decide to simply go back to Konoha to rectify and up the charges. He hoped that if he was to be attacked it would be after they reached his village where he could use its destitute position to possibly gain some compassion from this team and persuade them to stick around till his project was complete.

As their day began the typical Naruto was still drowsy, early morning was simply not his thing. Thus he was walking with his eyes closed. This didn't last long as Tazuna, who was even more agitated from the previous day, decided to put him back in line by violently smashing his travel stick on Naruto's head. Much to his shock, his stick broke upon impact and that left him unarmed versus fiery Naruto who was about to kick his butt to hell, if it wasn't for the valiant Kakashi who grabbed him just as he was about to clobber the old man. Naruto pleaded Kakashi to release him. He claimed that he needed to teach this drunken geezer a lesson by beating him into a bloody pulp, but Kakashi wouldn't listen.

The jounin told him to behave because although Tazuna had a bad attitude he was still their client and recalled that it was he, Naruto, who had picked up this mission, so now he had to assume his responsibility. While he reminded Tazuna that for his own good he should also control his actions as Naruto bites back hard and unless the old man wanted to see true terror at first hand he better stop. Of course, the old man defended himself by claiming that as client it was his right to notify when he felt he wasn't being protected and that is how he notified to the particular protector and should have the right to do so when ever he felt the same way. Naruto was about to curse him with streak of foul language but the Uchiha stopped him. Sasuke then shut the old man down by notifying him that he had nothing to fear and should calm down and relax, as he was privileged to have four well trained shinobis escorting him against a measly bunch of bandits they may encounter on their way. He also added that considering the type of the mission, Naruto alone was enough to take them out, unless of course there was something he, Tazuna, had forgot to mention before the start or this mention.

It would be the last of Tazuna's complains of the trip, as now he feared he was raising their suspicions. The final seal would come from Naruto a few hours later, as he trashed the first group of bandits they would encounter during the trip. He did so by unleashing his frustration on the poor thieves who had the unfortunate luck to set up a toll station on their path and demand it from them. They were first beaten into pulps by him via taijutsu and then adding insult to their injuries found them selves 'wedgied' on the surrounding trees. After the demonstration, Tazuna knew enough to not anger the boy any longer. He simply didn't want to end on the wrong end of his good nature.

* * *

By midday, a few hours later then their encounter with bandits, the group reached the borders of Fire country, where troubles awaited them. As they walked on their way towards the Wave country, Kakashi noticed a strange puddle of water on the side of their road, which got him suspicious. There was no way a puddle of water could be there naturally as it was a very warm day and it hadn't rained for a while. He hid his suspicion from the others and continued the journey. Just for insurance he slowed down his pace from the others to position himself as the man in the back and without alerting anyone he switched his position with a kage bunshin (shadow clone) and hid himself in the trees. 

Soon enough two identical shinobis with their face covered with breathing masks leaped out from the puddle and headed straight for his clone. The observant Kakashi quickly realized that they were the _Oniyodai _(demon brothers), two twins who were former chuunins of Kirigakure, now _nukenins_ (missing-ninjas). He recognized them by their large metal clawed gauntlet that each of the brothers wore on their opposing arms, which were connected by an edged chain. This allowed them to use their aum no ansatsu (spiritual balance assassination) style of attacks, where they would wrap the chain around their victim and then rip him apart by pulling the chain towards opposing directions.

Kakashi knew that they have been on the run ever since their failed coup d'état in the Water country, but he wasn't certain if they were raiding travelers for loot or were hired to eliminate their client, so he watched on, knowing very well that his team can handle to their actions, to find out who they were after. Gouzu and Meizu, the two brothers, unaware that they were being watched, preceded their offensive by first entangling Kakashi's shadow clone and ripping it apart, which made Sakura scream by the brutality of the action. This alerted Naruto who was still cat nipping as he walked.

"One down… Two down…" said Gouzu, as the brothers then proceeded to their next victim which happens to be Naruto.

At first he was caught by surprise of Kakashi's sudden demise, before realizing that the man had faked his death with a shadow clone.

"Two down my ass, fools!" replied Naruto, as he anticipated their attack and greeted them with a double mule kick (wrestling move).

The counter caught the brothers' right in the chin and pushed them backwards, but Naruto was careless and Meizu profited the opportunity to at least scratch his right leg with his claw, which was induced in poison. Although the cut was small Naruto started to feel its immediate effect that is numbness in the leg and haziness.

"Hah you're the fool, even though you managed to repel our initial attack you got hit with my poisonous claw, now you will die slowly. Let's go for the girl next brother," said Meizu, as they lunged for their next victim, Sakura.

"Tazuna-san get back", replied the girl as she stood in front of the old man in a defensive mode with her kunai drawn.

Naruto tried to leap in front of her to take the next blow but the poison's effect made his movement much slower. Meanwhile, Sakura stood her guard in hope that the brothers would miss their attack by some miracle. Just then her prince charming, Uchiha Sasuke came to her rescue. He had already identified the attackers' weakness, their chain link, and leaped in to action by suddenly appearing in front of them thus catching them off guard. He then halts their movement by locking the chain on the tree behind them by trapping it with a kunai he threw while hitting them with a drop kick (wrestling move) with his legs extended. Then he landed their gauntlets while performing a back flip to avoid their free hands and followed up with a double toe kick (wrestling move) on the brothers' chin, which pushed them flying backwards. Satisfied of his action he finished by showing his teammates his proud grin.

"_Sasuke-kun is so cool! No wonder he is the number one rookie, he didn't sweat or flinch in the face of danger,"_ thought the girl with dreamy eyes, whose inner-self added a _"Shannaro (Hell yeah)!"_ to the thought.

"_Show off, just what you would expect of a monkey. Damn poison, if it wasn't for that I would have easily saved Sakura and the old man,"_ thought Naruto, as he grimed in pain.

"Are you alright Scary cat? I am surprised you didn't notice their weakness and allowed yourself to get injured like this. Any moron would know that when you're connected with a chain, you can easily be stopped by having that chain blocked into something", taunted the proud Sasuke, which received Naruto's glare.

"Heh, did you hear that Meizu, this brat thinks he has figured us out. Let's give our winner his prize, shall we?" asked Gouzu to his brother.

"Even better, let's exchange our prizes at the same time brother," smirked Meizu, as they detached their chain connection and went for an X-formation attack.

This complicated Sasuke's situation, who wasn't expecting this outcome. He realized that it meant that now he could only take on one of the two targets as, the formation made each of them cut their way diagonally on the inside, meaning that they would come out much farther apart and on the opposite side their startup. They further complicated his situation being varying their velocity of approach. Seeing that he has no other choice, Sasuke opted to take on Meizu who was approaching towards him. He easily avoided the shinobi's claw swipe and pinned him with a head scissors arm-bar (wrestling move) lockdown.

This left Gouzu open who was aiming straight for Sakura and Tazuna. He figured that at his current velocity he would easily be able to puncture through Sakura's frail body and reach Tazuna who was just behind her. Unfortunately, Naruto had other ideas. He was still feeling hazy from the poison but was given just enough time to place himself in front of Sakura and take the blow. Kakashi tried to stop the chuunin but was too late as he had opted to attack from underground. Thus Sakura screamed again as she saw blood flow, as Naruto took the blow near his right shoulder blade. The attack left his whole left arm paralyzed and him very angry. He figured it to be another of their poisons, but he concentrated on his goal which he had succeeded.

"Yo Naruto, are you all right? Just hang in there. I'll end tying this one in a minute. Sakura help him and stop screaming like a little girl, you're a shinobi for god's sake," yelled Sasuke, as he was tying Meizu down.

"Heh you really are a fool. First you let yourself get poisoned by Meizu, now you are victim of my paralyzing drug. What a futile attempt, now you can't even move your right arm and got a hole in your shoulder. Not to mention that you are still going to see your girlfriend dieing by my hand. See the poor girl is already traumatized by her stupid lover's sacrifice… what's this why can't I pull my claw back?" yelled Gouzu who was smirking evilly a minute a go till found himself stuck on Naruto's shoulder and so Naruto's eye glow.

"I may have been unlucky until now but now you took over that curse with your three insults. Boy, you really must have gone something really bad in your life to deserve this. First you insult me. Then you call Sakura my girlfriend, which isn't going to happen in a thousand years, even if she preyed for it every night. But wait, you just had to make your fate even worse by telling me that you are going to kill my teammate in front of me? You should have kept your mouth shut or at least made sure I didn't have a fresh arm and leg to kick your butt to oblivion. Who's got who bitch? Time for your punishment," replied an angry Naruto.

Just then Naruto clenched his left fist and delivered a direct blow at Gouzu's extended and exposed elbow shattering it into pieces. As Gouzu screamed in agony, the remaining muscle which was holding his arm together tore off leaving his forearm and gauntlet still stuck on Naruto who at this point jumped up and delivered a thunderous enzuigiri (wrestling move) with his left leg on his head sending him smacking head first in a nearby tree. The event lasted a second, but the brutality of it was enough to make Sakura faint on the spot, while both Sasuke and Tazuna turned white.

"By the way, you forgot your forearm. Here allow me to return it to you. Oh look it landed perfectly on your butt. I guess I missed my cue; it landed on the only place you didn't need to be paralyzing at the moment. The fool he thought he had me," added Naruto, as he pulled out Gouzou's forearm from his shoulder and threw it straight at the unconscious shinobi's ass like a dagger.

"Erm, Naruto don't you think you overreacted a little bit too much for three insults?" said Kakashi as he reappeared from under the ground, while the boy sat down to take a breather.

"Huh? Nah not really, he is lucky he only lose an arm after claiming he will kill my teammates. I should have broken him bone by bone for that and suggesting that Sakura is my girlfriend, but then I remembered I hate violence and killing. Don't worry he isn't dead, he's only knocked out. Hey Sakura, get up! Stop sleeping on your job damn girl," replied Naruto as he tried to wake Sakura up.

His action made Kakashi shake his head. Here he was, with a superficial injury on his shoulder, losing blood and had another one injury on his right leg, acting like nothing has happened to him. Not to mention that he had just broke and ripped a guy's arm off and shoved it up his ass in cold blood. Sasuke was literally stunned by Naruto's for a minute. He never thought the boy had it in him to be this rough when duty called, especially considering his usual friendly attitude.

Kakashi was about to help Naruto but before that he approached Meizu and forcefully opened the shinobi's mouth to retrieve the cyanide pill shinobi's from Kiri are known to carry with them in case they failed their mission. He then congratulated the nukenin on keeping on par with his tradition. By then Sakura woke up thanks to Sasuke's assistance.

"I am sorry, I didn't intervene earlier guys. I needed to see if their target was Tazuna-san or not. You guys did a pretty good job, although next time Naruto pay attention. Your carelessness got you nearly killed today. As for you Sasuke next time try to not show off too much, it is great that you can do those acrobatic moves, but trying to do too many complicated moves can lead to death. As for you Sakura, good job on protecting Tazuna-san," announced Kakashi.

Just when Sakura had fully regained her composure Naruto made her scream once more by sticking a kunai on his right leg and open up the location where the poison had entered him to bleed it out.

"Would you shut up? I am just getting the damn poison out stop screaming every time you see some blood," yelled Naruto at her.

"You dumbass, you are loosing too much blood at this rate you will die due to the lack of blood in your system, you should first stop your bleeding and then worry about taking out the poison and not the reverse," yelled Sakura.

"She is right Naruto. It is good that you let the poison out but it could have waited. Sakura since you are carrying the medical supplies please patch him up, while I interrogate our friend here. Sasuke go check on the other one. Tazuna-san, please follow me I think you got some explaining to give me," ordered Kakashi.

* * *

The group divided themselves for the tasks. Of course, it was obvious that the only ones who didn't like theirs order were Naruto and Sakura, but obeyed as Kakashi imposed his glare upon them. Tension was still up between the two, Naruto's comment for a possible relationship between the two was still fresh in Sakura's mind, especially his physical reply. She didn't know why he made such hurtful comments about her, she knew that she wasn't interested in him, but still he made treated her harshly when it came to that subject. He just had to let everyone know that she had no chance with him, even Sasuke didn't do that to her and she was crazy for him. Either way, she had a job to do now and she didn't want to waste much time on the person who claimed to hate her. 

She gently wrapped Naruto's lower right leg injury which was located near his ankle with bandages. Naruto felt awkward by her treatment, as it was the first time anyone was giving him a treatment. He had been injured various times and even poisoned by deadly snakes, but could only count himself to treat them. well more like he had Kyuubi for the job, since his injuries would heal up at an exponential rate. It was one of those special powers for which he was glad to have Kyuubi in her earlier life. The current injuries were also healing fast, but this time he had to allow Sakura wrap him, as his abnormal regenerative powers would most likely raise suspicions about his hidden secrets and he certainly didn't want that.

However, that did not mean he wouldn't put up a resistance, especially when it came to wrapping his next injury, as it required him to expose his upper body to her. Kakashi had briefly mentioned that the paralyzing drug had most likely an effect of 24 hours, so Naruto will just to wait till wears out, but he still needed to be patched, as he was loosing blood.

The first problem was that unlike his last injury this one required him to take off his jacket and that meant he would be exposing one of his training secrets, the training weights he wore in his forearms, which he didn't wish to reveal. The ones on his legs were concealed on his tibias just under his knee so it didn't raise any suspicion but these ones would certainly be found by Sakura who certainly wasn't dumb enough to ignore them. He didn't trust her for such things to be revealed to Sasuke, since as far as he was concerned she was still his dog. His resistance would be in vain as she would still manage to take it off, thanks to glares from Kakashi and eventually discovered his little secret. But then in an unexpected turning point she decided to keep the secret for herself.

The second problem was of course his skin exposure to her. He wasn't a shy guy, but he knew enough about girls to know that liked a well built man and he had no intention of turning Gouzou's dream into reality. But again he was defeated as she generously reminded him that his little secret was still exposed and unless he opened up and allowed her to patch him up before the Uchiha returned from his little investigation it would be out. This was her kryptonite against the boy, as she had discovered during training that his competitive nature against Sasuke made him vulnerable to such blackmail and she loved abusing it to get some training tips against him. A power she wished she also had on Sasuke, but the boy was to stiff and arrogant to have such weakness much to her dismay.

Defeated once more, the Uzumaki revealed to her his upper body and urged her to hurry up and patch him up, which she did. After finishing her job however, his perfect body caught her attention much to his displeasure. First, she loved the sexy abs and well defined chest he had developed due to his training and second she was curious about the giant looking seal on his on his abdomen, which would have been the third reason he didn't wish to expose himself to her in he hadn't totally forgot about it. Luckily for him, she didn't know something about sealing method in that giant forehead of hers.

"Wow what is that, a tattoo? How did you get it? I didn't know young boys could have one," as the inquisitive Sakura, catching him off guard with her latest comment.

"Oh this, yes it is indeed a tattoo. _Thank god this bookworm hasn't memorized sealing methods yet_. It is the reason why your parents believe I am a bad influence. After all, good little boys don't tattoo themselves now do they? Bad little boys like me, however, do it to make our self look cool," replied Naruto, who was now using this to repulse her away from him.

"I guess you have a point. Now I understand why they told me to avoid you at all cost. You are brutal and you're a bad boy. Luckily, my Sasuke-kun doesn't have those problems," vented Sakura, trying to force Naruto's physique out of her mind.

"Yes, a good looking boy like that Uchiha doesn't need such things to be cool. Not to mention that he is most likely better physically built then ugly bad boys like my self," added Naruto, reinforcing his earlier point.

Just like he had expected it worked, as Sakura was now day dreaming about her beau Sasuke, while he took the opportunity to get himself dressed before that annoying Uchiha showed his face. It was another trick he had learned from his idol's anthology. That is that if you wanted to get rid of a girl's attention off of you, simply lower your status by heightening another boys one via compliments, a recipe that worked every time.

* * *

Sasuke returned soon after only to receive starry eyes from Sakura, which he suspected was due to something Naruto must have said about him. He knew his rival was the greatest assistance when it came to having Sakura jump in his arm, but at the moment it was least of his concern and he had a bad news to announce. 

"The man is dead…" he said with a disappointed look in his face.

"What? He can't be dead, I just knocked him out, you sure he isn't just unconscious or something," demanded Naruto who wasn't appreciating the fact that he had actually killed a man.

"Nope, he is dead. He must have accidentally eaten that cyanide pill Kakashi-sensei told me to retrieve off of him. His face shows traces of the poison. I have a good news though, sensei was right, that paralyzing drug he used on you will only last for the next 24 hours," added the Uchiha.

"Oh well, that's good. I guess that's one more soul I won't have to send to hell. I just let his brother take his pill after being a stubborn mule and not revealing any info. Those Kiri shinobis sure love death more then life. Luckily Tazuna-san came out and revealed our current situation. He is indeed the target of an assassination attempt, which makes this mission a B-rank now. Since this team is composed of genins our priority would have been to return to Konoha, but after much deliberation I decided to continue it anyway. After all, if he returned it would surely assure his death and squash his villagers hope of ever freeing themselves from their current tyranny, since none of them can afford the payment for a B-rank mission. Either way, congratulation on your first kill Naruto, don't worry you will get used to it as time passes," added Kakashi.

"What? I didn't kill him! Or did I? Damn it, I didn't to start my life as shinobi known as a murderer. I couldn't have killed him… I can't… what have I done…why does these things always happen to me!" yelled Naruto who really wasn't appreciating the credit.

"Hey now, calm down there. You did what you had to do to ensure the safety of your teammates and your client. It's a fact of life. don't blame yourself for such things. No one would argue against you for it. You simply did your job. Now let's get back on track I want to get this over with," said Kakashi, as he patted Naruto on the back.

It didn't help his situation much. If there was one term he wanted to avoid associated with himself that would be 'murderer' and here he was on his first mission already marked with it. All that could run in his head for the next few hours were the word 'murderer'. A term he was certain the villagers of Konoha have been waiting to stick on his back. On the other hand, Sasuke was disappointed, Naruto had beaten him on the first step, he had already a kill to his credit and that frustrated him to no end. He was supposed to be the killer of the group, he needed to me, and he wanted to be the one. Now he was poised for blood, he must also kill an opponent. He felt it was an experience he had to accumulate to prove him self and have the nerve to kill his brother one day and avenge his clan. Those the team was plagued with the first of its ironies, the boy who wanted to kill didn't achieve it, while the boy who hated associating himself with killing ended up being the killer. It was also another proof that both Sasuke and Naruto were from the opposite sides of the scale of life, while Sakura again found her self in the middle of both worlds. She wanted to comfort each of them, but nothing she could do would break them from their recent emotional distress.

Kakashi had other matters to consider now. He was taking a big risk, although the mission was now definitely out of their jurisdiction he was confident that as a team they could handle it. What he feared now was that Gato would most likely send a much stronger shinobis against them and he had the money to hire the worst kind. He just hoped his compassion wouldn't lead him to the death of these kids. As they proceeded further into their way to Wave country the team encountered another set of bandits. This time it would be Sasuke who would wipe the floor and unlike Naruto he went at him with killing intent. Thus four of them died by his hands before the bandits ran for their lives. Sasuke was about to chase them, but he was stopped by Kakashi who reminded him that an honorable shinobi didn't run after opponents who have given up the fight, especially when his mission isn't about killing them. Naruto wanted to also intervene from stopping Sasuke from killing the bandits, as he didn't like such violent act, but his frozen arm didn't allow him such luxury. It would be a painful night for him, as he had to sleep in a very uncomfortable position, luckily Kakashi allowed him to sleep on the trees which nullified some of his discomfort.

* * *

The next morning, the team reached the borders of Wave country and paid extra attention as they entered the country. There was anxiety in the air, there hadn't been another shinobi attack since the Oniyodai and that only meant their next encounter was now eminent. To their surprise they still didn't encounter any obstacle as they arrived at the entrance of Tazuna's village, but they were still vigilant as the mission was far from over. Tazuna lived near the riverside, which was at the opposite end of the village, which happened to be an island apart from the main land, and a bit farther from the main concentration. The village was most likely crawled with Gato's goons. Luckily for them, one of Tazuna's friends, a boater was waiting for them and he suggested escorting them safely by the river streams of the lake that divided the village from the rest of the country, which the team agreed. After all, all is good as long as they can avoid trouble. Naruto was still stiff from the effects of the paralyzing drug, which had just worn off. Having his arm in the same position for a full day also meant it would take him some more time get readjusted to its normal duties. So this trip was certainly one Kakashi could not miss, not to mention that it would allow them to get a look at the bridge their client was building, which would connect the village to the main land. The kids were amazed by the great bridge. It was the largest thing they had seen up till date, a marvelous construction. It gave them additional motivation to complete their work. 

They entered the village unnoticed under the foggy weather that covered the trail of the small boat they rode by. The villager dropped them of about ten blocks off Tazuna's house, which was located at the end of an empty suburban road that followed the oceanic shore on its right and a small bushy forest by their left. A perfect place for an ambush, but it was one they must take as it was the only way to go to the old man's house by land. They thanked the villager for risking his life for escorting them and continued their walk towards the home.

* * *

However, as they walked on, they were about to realize that those ten blocks would be their first encounter with a nightmare. Gato had indeed hired another shinobi. What the Oniyodai hadn't revealed to team 7 was that they were part of a group whose leader was the original man hired for the job. A shinobi named Momochi Zabuza. He was a former arrogant elite jounin from Kirigakure, known for his ruthlessness, his silent assassination skills and a bloody past that gave him the title:_ Kirigakure no Kijin_ (Devil of the hidden Mist). He was one of the famous _Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu_ (Seven Swordsmen of the Mist) and was currently on the run after attempting to take over the leadership of Kiri by a coup d' d'état. After his failed attempt, he had been taking jobs in the underworld and finally found himself hired by Gato for his services. He hated the man but needed his money to finance his second attempt to forcefully take over the title of Mizukage. 

Earlier in the day, he was yelled by Gato upon receiving word that his two minions had failed their task. So to keep his client happy, Zabuza took the matter on his own hand. He had been fed up for quite sometime and the news that some powerful shinobis were coming made him very thirsty for some fun. So killing Tazuna and his hired protectors was perfect for him as it filled both his needs: his urge to kill and his need of the bounty on Tazuna's head. Being the great assassin that he was Zabuza decided to wait for them at the halfway point of the only road that lead to his victim's house. It suited him perfectly, as the bushes allowed him to hide and observe while the nearby ocean meant he could abundant amount of sources needed for his jutsus.

When he saw the group he immediately recognized Hatake Kakashi. The jounin was well marked in his bingo book, for being one of the most renowned shinobis from Konohagakure. Now he understood why his minions had failed, but his case would be much different. He was a much stronger then both of the brothers combined and he had Haku by his side for assurance. Still he felt that his pupil wasn't necessary for the job, especially considering that Kakashi was accompanied by three insects. Instead he told him to hide and observe. He wanted him to study the famous sharingan (copy cat eyes) that Kakashi possessed. The boy could notice in his sensei's face that the man was thrilled at the prospect of facing the jounin. He just wish he wouldn't throw caution to the wind, but this was Zabuza he was talking about, the man who throw it away even if he was facing 100 men and it's not like he, Haku, had the power to control him. Thus Zabuza positioned himself to prey upon Tazuna at the first instance.

* * *

Meanwhile in team 7, Naruto seeing that Tazuna was extremely tensed made the old man ease down by telling the story on how Sakura almost became the wife of a gorilla in Konoha, which earned him a beating from the pink haired girl. The joke was so funny that it spoiled Zabuza's initial attempt, as it made Haku giggle, which revealed his position in the bushes from where he was planning to spy on Kakashi, as he accidentally stepped on a twig. This was highly uncharacteristic of the boy, who was hailed by his sensei as a prodigy and the perfect tool. Naruto being impulsive and picking up Haku's mistake, as he was the closeted to him, didn't waste the moment and launched a shuriken straight at his location forcing the boy to retreat via kawarimi (body switching) with a white bunny he had kept in a cage for such occasion. He made his escape and positioned himself farther away upon a tree where the group wouldn't think to look and kept observing from there. 

"_Damn, I didn't expect people from Konohagakure to be this mellow. That boy totally caught me off with that joke of his… and then their beating scene was way too funny to not laugh at. I didn't know people like that could be accepted as shinobis. Hmm, I better watch myself. Zabuza-san must be fuming in anger for my apparent mistake already. It was certainly a close call,"_ wondered the teen before refocusing his action on Kakashi.

Kakashi had also felt the disturbance with his superior senses and leaped towards the region to investigate only to find a white show rabbit, scared to death. This earned the blond haired shinobi another punishment in the hands of Sakura, this time for attempting to kill the beautiful creature. Hidden from the view, Haku was still confused by Sakura and Naruto's childish actions. It was the first time he was seeing this from a shinobi as such immature acts wouldn't be tolerated in Kirigakure. While the others sighed as Sakura was giving Naruto a piece of her mind, Kakashi studied the rabbit and was quick to realize that it fur should have been grey, as it was spring instead of white. This told him that the animal had been kept in a cage for substitution purposes, which meant that they were indeed being watched.

However, before he could look for Haku, Zabuza interrupted Kakashi's search by throwing his trusty kyodaina kubikiri hocho (giant head cleaving sword) towards him like a boomerang from his location near the reef.

"Everyone, get down!" yelled Kakashi as he sensed the giant sword approaching from behind and struck the tree near him.

Everyone escaped at the nick of time. Sasuke was the first one to get up and spot Zabuza's shadowy figure as he was above them. The Uchiha took evasive action by throwing a few shuriken towards him, but he evaded them easily and landed on his sword. Naruto was about to launch at him but Kakashi stopped him.

"Well, well, looks like Gato lives up to his fortune. Although I never expected a guy like you to go this low and do his bidding, Momochi Zabuza, nukenin of Kirigakure. Guess no one else wanted to hire you after the Mizukage put you head for bounty huh? Guys leave this guy to be and protect Tazuna-san. This guy is at a whole new level. I'll end this quickly," ordered Kakashi, as he lifted his _hitai-ate_ (headband) to reveal his left eye where resided his secret weapon the sharingan.

"I didn't expect you to be hired by a poor bridge builder too Hatake Kakashi or should I say _Sharingan Kakashi_ (Copycat Kakashi) of Konohagakure. Guess you guys were lacking jobs in your so called peaceful nation. I am sorry, but this will one mission you may wish to forget about, because the old guy is mine. Then again, maybe you shouldn't, after all I intend to make this the last mission for you and your little insects. Oh what's this? You really give me too much honor by already starting with the sharingan," replied Zabuza.

"_What, he can't have the sharingan! Only the Uchiha can and even that is to a limited few,"_ thought an irritated Sasuke.

"Huh, what's the sharingan? What's with that eye of yours Kakashi-sensei?" wondered a confused Naruto.

"It doesn't look normal, some kind of special ability perhaps?" added Sakura, as she looked at Kakashi.

"_Hmm, so this is the sharingan Zabuza-san just talked about. I wonder if its abilities are real or a simple illusion,"_ thought Haku, as he spied from a tree.

"The sharingan is a bloodline ability that only a few select Uchiha's can have. It is said that it can read and defeat any types of ninjutsu, taijutsu or genjutsu. How can you have it? You aren't Uchiha or are you?" questioned the Uchiha to his sensei in an irritated voice.

"That isn't all it does. It has an even scarier ability. It is said that it also copy the opponent's jutsu as it sees them. When I was in Kiri, I had a bingo book with your name on it and said you hold a 1000 jutsus in your inventory thanks to it", added Zabuza.

"_Cool! You're the man Kakashi-sensei. Wait a minute Sasuke said it is an ability of his clan that means he most likely knows it too. Damn cheater, no wonder he is able to learn all those jutsu fast. I better keep mine away from him or he will try to steal mine too,"_ thought Naruto, as he found another reason to hate the Uchiha.

"Wow, I didn't know Kakashi-sensei was so famous…" said Sakura.

"Guys stop talking nonsense and stick to the plan. Do not intervene got it! As for you stop adding in, I thought you weren't much of a talker. Stop venting around and start fighting," ordered Kakashi, who wasn't like the distraction he was causing.

"You are right. I am usually not much of a talker. So get ready because here I come, ninpou suiton kirigakure (ninja art water element hidden mist)," said Zabuza as he jumped of the tree while pulling his sword out and landed on the water in the lake.

"_Hmm, he is releasing a high amount of chakra. He is preparing something big,"_ thought Kakashi.

"Hey what's with this mist? It's getting thicker. Damn he is gone," asked Naruto.

"Damn, so this is what you were planning. Guys be weary of this mist and stick together. It's a technique of his, he specializes in silent killing. This mist is to blind us from his attacks, once our visibility is down he will try to attack with his ninpou muon satsujin (ninja art silent assassination) from a blind angles. You don't even notice till you are already dead. So watch out for any disturbances, it's not like I can use the sharingan perfectly, but don't worry his target is me," explained Kakashi.

"Hmm, 8 choices: liver, lung, spine, clavicle vein, neck vein, brain, kidney, heart. Which one should I choose?" asked the hidden Zabuza.

"This guy is really starting to freak me out", said Sakura quietly, as sweats of fear started to pore from her head.

"Don't worry Sakura he is just trying to intimidate us. It's all just talk, just stay focused and nothing will happen," replied Sasuke, to comfort her.

"You call that an intimidation? Here I will give you some real intimidation: ninpou shikumi (ninja art death viewing)!" said Zabuza, as he temporarily froze the team with his killing intent.

"_Damn this is crazy it feels like I'll be killed if I make a single move. Is this the intensity of a jounin? It feels like I am going to be squeezed till death I can't take it anymore,"_ thought Sasuke as sweat started to pour out of his as well.

"Sasuke, calm down and don't worry. I'll protect you guys even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die," said Kakashi with a smile.

"Heh… we'll see about that… It's over," said Zabuza, as he appeared in the middle of the group just in front of Tazuna, taking the kids by surprise and ready to wield out kubikiri hocho for the kill.

"Not if I can help it!" said Kakashi, as he jumped at the shinobi and stabbed him with his kunai on the chest revealing it to be mizu bunshin (water clone).

"Sensei, he's behind you," yelled Naruto, as Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and sliced him into, revealing him self to also be a mizu bunshin, but that didn't stop Sakura from screaming once more.

"_What this can't be. Damn, he managed to copy my mizu bunshin even in this foggy weather,"_ thought Zabuza.

"Don't move it's over Zabuza," said the real Kakashi, as he held a kunai to his neck.

"It's over? Don't make me laugh, you won't defeat me with you monkey-like imitations, but that was impressive of you. You copied my mizu bunshin and replaced yourself with it, while you were comforting this vermin and used it to have me attack. While the real you hid in the mist and watched me fall for your trap. Nice plan, but as you can see you have failed once more," said Zabuza, as he appeared behind Kakashi with a kunai of his own.

Kakashi immediately took him out only to realize that he had been tricked as it was another mizu bunshin, while the real Zabuza was the one who was in front of him. Before he could move Zabuza tried to slice him in two with his giant sword, but misses his swing, as Kakashi ducked just in time. However, that put Kakashi in a disadvantage as he got hit by a hard savate kick (wrestling move), while trying to get back up. The hit send Kakashi flying and Zabuza tried to capitalize on the situation by trying to slice him in mid-air but was stopped as he stepped on some makibishi (throwing nails) thrown by Sakura. This bought Kakashi some time as he fell in the ocean.

Zabuza was pissed by the disturbance then tried to slice Sakura in two but missed as he pushed himself away from her, as Naruto and Sasuke appeared in front of him and attempted to him with a side-kicks (wrestling move) at the same time. The boys realized that he was equally good in taijutsu and much faster then them even though he was carrying such a large sword.

The man then jumped back in the waters and headed towards Kakashi. Kakashi then got up cursing to fall for such a novice trick, but before he could get out the water around him got thicker. He tried to force himself out but pretty soon found himself in a sphere like water prison made by the Kirigakure no Kijin.

"Heh caught you! You were a fool Kakashi; you played right into my trap. It's stupid to fight me with water element, no matter how much monkey-imitation you try there is no way you can beat me at my own field. Hope you enjoy your stay in my suiton suirou (water element water prison), while I take care of these pests. Don't try to move much you'll only waste your energy its unbreakable from the inside," said a smiling Zabuza, as he summons another mizu bunshin to take care of Naruto and company.

"_Damn he is much stronger then I thought. It's going to take a miracle to get out of this mess,"_ wonders Kakashi, as he still tries to break free.

The water clone first launched towards Sasuke but as he was about to hit him, he speeded up and went for Naruto instead with a hard flying kick on the head. The impact sent Naruto knocking on a tree while his hitai-ate landed under the clone's feet. Seeing Naruto taken out so fast made both Sasuke and Sakura shiver, as they now realized that this man outclassed them in every level. Meanwhile the assassin enjoyed taunting the kids as he gradually tried to crust their spirits with a hard lesson on the life a shinobi.

"Heh, you kids never thought your day would end like this now did you? Well welcome to the real world. To bad it will be your last, you should blame your dumb village for making you shinobis and putting your hopes up by making you think that by simply wearing the hitai-ate made you real shinobis. A real shinobi is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death, not some brats like you who think the world is all bright and shinny. Basically, once you're good enough to be listed in my hand book then you can start calling yourselves a shinobi, which fools like you don't deserve," explained the water clone.

"_Oh man, I knew this mission was going to get worst. We weren't ready for this kind of challenge and now I am going to die without having the chance to kiss Sasuke-kun,"_ thought a fearful Sakura.

"Is that so? Well then eyebrow-less freak. You better add my name in that book of yours. I am the man who is going to be the next Hokage of Konoha and also the man who is going to turn your life into hell," said Naruto as he got up, much to the surprise of everyone.

"Well, well, you turned out to be much more resistant then I expected. But your still an insect who's all talk and no show to me vermin," insulted the clone.

"You guys take Tazuna-san and run away! You have no chance of beating him! As long as he's keeping me trapped in this prison, he' can't move. His water clone cannot go very far from his real body. Just runaway now," yelled Kakashi.

"An excellent proposition Kakashi, it's been a while since I haven't played cat and mouse," added Zabuza with a smirk.

"Sasuke-kun now is our chance you grab Naruto and I will watch over Tazuna-san. Let's get far away from here," asked Sakura.

"Nobody is going anywhere. Running away won't get us anywhere. Sasuke get ready, we are going to apply that tactic we have been working on. Sakura stay put and protect the old man," ordered Naruto, as he prepared for the assault.

"Good point, Naruto I am also getting tired of this guy's shinobi lectures. We'll just have to shut him up like we did to his goons," added Sasuke.

"You guys are insane, he's a jounin and he's even stronger then Kakashi-sensei. We can't win against him," reminded Sakura.

"Will you shut up? What do you think running away will achieve? Where can you run? This isn't Konoha you know? Our only option is to march forwards and besides did you forget why Kakashi-sensei made us pass? Those who abandon their friends are lower then trash. I am not going to lose and I refuse to lose or bow down to a guy who doesn't even have eyebrows," yelled back Naruto at Sakura.

"Naruto is right Sakura. From a strategic point we have no choice to engage. The only place we can go here is Tazuna-san's house and he is our way. Ready when you are Naruto, let's start this with a bang," added Sasuke, as he prepared his projectiles.

Just then Naruto started his run towards Zabuza's mizu bunshin while Sasuke covered his approach by distracting the clone with his projectiles. He threw a few shurikens towards him to get him off balance this allowed Naruto to land him with a few of his unorthodox taijutsu attacks while he picked up his hitai-ate at the same time. Then Sasuke threw a kunai attached with an explosive tag in front of the clone and ignited it, forcing the clone to leap in the sky. Naruto also jumped with him, but given that Zabuza was much stronger he held the edge in the climb, which left Naruto at his mercy or so he thought. As he tried to descend on the boy with his big sword and slice him in two, Naruto used shunshin (body flicker) and appeared at his height. Being caught in mid-air and with his sword already swinging downwards the clone couldn't defend against Naruto's patented janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo), which hit him on the spot and turned him back to into water. The real Zabuza seeing this tried to catch Naruto off guard by throwing a few kunais of his own at him, but those were countered by Sasuke's own projectile who again covered Naruto's back as he landed back on the ground.

"Your clone just got his express to hell, no-eyebrows. Guess you didn't expect it to lose this quickly to insects like us now did you? Guess what your next in line to get your ass whooped by these two little insects. Sasuke get ready for phase 2," taunted Naruto at his turn, while Sasuke smirked at his turn.

"_What's this feeling… why I am getting so excited? Is this because of Naruto?"_ thought Sakura.

"_Hmm… this kid is sure not one to be underestimated… but still if he thinks such tricks will work on Zabuza-san he's got another thing coming for him. The mizu bunshin have only 1/3 of Zabuza-san's actual power,"_ reflected Haku from his position.

"You've got a lot of arrogance for kids I will give you that, but did you seriously think defeating my mizu bunshin would you make you any greater in my eyes? They are only 1/3 of my actual stamina not to mention that I am only using them with taijutsu and you know the worst part of it? With the amount of water in this area, I can easily create another one as you destroy one. Well that is as long as I have any chakra left which is still more then anything you three can muster," laughed Zabuza, as he summoned another mizu bunshin.

"_This is bad…_ What are you guys doing? Run away! This fight was over the moment I was caught. This is not a game. It is our duty to protect Tazuna-san at all cost. Did you forget that?" yelled Kakashi.

"I know this isn't much, but since I am one who got you guys in this mess in the first place. I am not going to stop you from fighting now. Besides, just like you kids have said, I have nowhere to go but my home here and that happens to be ahead and not behind… so fight as much as you want I won't hold any grudges if this leads to my death," replied Tazuna.

"Well Kakashi-sensei it seems even the old man is against your plan. So we will just have to proceed with we started," added Sasuke, who was getting excited.

"But you guys… even if we all attack him at once there is still two of them. How are we going to handle him if he keeps popping a new one every time we destroy one?" asked Sakura.

"Lend me your ears guys I have a plan," said Naruto, as he gathered them near him.

The very suggestion of Naruto made Zabuza laugh evilly. Just seeing the work as a team disgusted him.

"You have a plan to counter a person of my caliber? What's that teamwork? You guys will never grow up. Going to keep 'playing' shinobi, eh? What did you think this is… a game of shougi? Look at you, you are all about to die and your still expecting that I will allow you to sit down and make a plan to fight against me. This isn't a game. The rule is kill or be killed. The only thing that matters is survival. There is no mercy, no fairness, and no second chances. The first thing that anyone who wishes to become a shinobi is that he is nothing more then a tool for killing. If you're told to kill you kill, there shouldn't be a second guess. There is no time for team work it's every man for him self. When I was about your age… these hands were already dyed red with blood and it is the sole reason I am still alive," said the man with a fierce look in his eyes, which made everyone uncomfortable.

"Devil Zabuza…" said Kakashi.

"Ah… so you've heard a little about it. Mind telling these kids of yours about it? I am sure they will believe you more then me", said Zabuza with a smile.

"Tell us what?" asked a scared Sakura.

"Long ago, Kirigakure was known as the village of 'Bloody Mist'. It was because each year the students wishing to become shinobis had to pass a final test before their graduation. That is a fight to the death between all the students until one student per table remained. These were students who had formerly helped each other and shared the same dreams. They were friends, brothers and sisters, but pitted one against another. This practice was stopped fifteen years ago after a young boy who wasn't even a student, had slaughtered over 100 of the students without a pause or hesitation… all for pleasure and that student's name was…Momochi Zabuza, the Kirigakure no Kijin" informed Kakashi, as his student's were shivering in their pants.

"Oh so you knew the whole story after all… ah the sweet memory", said the man, as tears of joy ran down his eyes.

"Impossible… this guy is a psychopath…no a monster!" said Sasuke, who was stunned by the proclamation.

"Yes, I am and now it is your time to die and join my other dead victims," said the water clone as he charged towards them at full speed.

The kids were still stunned upon hearing the gruesome story as they felt death approaching them. Sasuke being the fastest when it came to sensing immediately took his kunai out and tried to stab the approaching mizu bunshin of Zabuza, but his attack was easily blocked by its sword. He then tried to hit him with his taijutsu but his fancy foot works were still no match for its sheer power, with which he grabbed him and slammed him on the floor. The clone then took out his giant sword and was about decapitate the Uchiha who was now trapped under his boots but Naruto intervened just in time by with his own taijutsu while Sakura showered him with shurikens thus forcing the clone to take a step back.

"Damn Sasuke, how many times do I have to tell you not attack without proper backup? You nearly got killed this time, Sakura come and retrieve him while, I will keep this bastard busy. Damn, clone I had enough of you, two can play the same game: kage bunshin (shadow clones)," said Naruto as he summoned four shadows clones to hold down Zabuza's water clone.

However, before he could mount any assault, his clones were destroyed by the real Zabuza who threw his shurikens at them, thus freeing his clone who in turn got up and kicked Naruto who absorbed the impact as he was pushed back towards Sasuke and Sakura.

"Damn it Naruto, this isn't working," yelled Sakura.

"Just shut up and wait for the signal Sakura. When I give it you shower them all projectiles you got. Sasuke get ready. This time I am going to up the tempo: tajuu kage bunshin (multiple shadow clones). Okay clones start your attack now!" ordered Naruto, as 20 of his shadow clones jumped on the Zabuza's water clone destroying it.

Zabuza once again easily replaced it with another mizu bunshin but this time this one was much closer to him as Naruto's shadow clones had taken the opportunity to charge at the real Zabuza.

"_What is he doing? Looks like an all out assault on Zabuza-san. Things like this won't on him. This guy is really not logical is he?"_ thought the observant Haku.

"Ah kage bunshin, finally you show something interesting. I never expected an insect like you to be able to use a jutsu like that and especially not so many of them, but if you think you can get me with only that you got another thing coming, vermin," yelled the real Zabuza, as the 20 shadow clones jumped once more on his water clone.

This time however, the mizu bunshin was ready for them. It blocked their attack with his giant sword and then flung them in the air and then sliced them into pieces. Their deaths clouded Zabuza and his clone's vision from seeing Naruto transform one of his newly summoned kage bunshin in a fuuma shuriken (evil windmill shuriken) by using henge (transformation) while he replaced himself with another of his kage bunshin and went to hide underground. The as their visibility returned they saw the shadow clone, who now they believed to be the real Naruto, pass the fuuma shuriken to Sasuke, who seeing previously what Naruto was doing figured out his plan. The Uchiha then grabbed the shuriken and combined it with it own. He then jumped up and threw it using the kage shuriken (shadow shuriken).

"Huh, a shuriken won't work against me. Oh what's this? Now I see, you were aiming at me and not my clone, but that's not going to be enough. On the other hand now you leave yourself open for my clone to attack you," said Zabuza, as he caught shuriken with his free hand.

"Sakura, now!" yelled the acting shadow clone, who gave Sakura the signal to fire her shurikens and kunais.

"Oh no your not, I won't let your filthy clone approach my Sasuke-kun. Take this and this!" yelled Sakura who threw two volleys of projectiles towards the water clone who was attempting to jump and intercept Sasuke in mid-air.

Her first set, was composed of three kunais attached with explosive tags which landed near the water clone's launching area, while her second set, composed of 10 shurikens, were thrown in the air to stop halt the clone from his interception, forcing him back on the ground. Now that the mizu bunshin was grounded he decided to take upon Sakura, but before he could do that Sasuke had a little surprise for him from above, as he unleashed his katon goukakyuu (fire element great fireball) upon his zone. The clone easily avoided the flame, till he realized that he was surrounded by Sakura's three explosion tags, which blew upon contact with Sasuke's flaming attack and thus destroyed the clone.

Meanwhile, Zabuza was impressed that the Uchiha could use fire jutsus at his age, but still wasn't concerned about it, as he tried to summon another mizu bunshin to replace the last one. The clone never came out as Zabuza found himself plagued by another problem. He found himself right in the path of a second fuuma shuriken which was approaching from the blind spot of the first one and caught him by surprise. Now he had a serious problem, both his hands were full and this shuriken was approaching right on him. He also couldn't move much as his right hand contained Kakashi in his suiton suirou and he was heavy as well.

"What another shuriken? Damn I knew it was a bit too easy, you are trying to full me with kage shuriken. Good tactic, but still not enough! You forgot I still have legs powerful enough to jump over it," yelled Zabuza as he jumped over the projectile.

Sasuke and Sakura were disappointed that he managed to get out of their little trick but at the moment they had a smirk in their face, their plan was almost about to succeed. To prepare for the final assault, the kage bunshin Naruto had left behind also leaped in the air to act like a spring board for Sasuke so that he didn't land in the area where his fire attack was still burning. Sasuke bounced on the clone and landed on a safer zone. Upon seeing t he shadow clone disappear as his job was complete Zabuza was confused, as he realized he couldn't find Naruto in his view. Just then he heard a puffing sound behind him and turned his head toward it.

"Got you fool!" yelled the final shadow clone as he threw a kunai straight towards his exposed right arm with all the power within him.

This forced Zabuza to release his hold on Kakashi, as his alternative would result into loosing his right arm instead, which allowed him to dodge the kunai. But as he did, he tried to throw the fuuma shuriken on his left hand straight at Naruto.

"Die you damn brat!" said the shinobi, but found his attack blocked by Kakashi.

"Not in my watch buddy," replied Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, move out of the way, Sasuke-kun is attacking!" yelled Sakura, which alerted both jounins.

The Uchiha had unleashed his katon housenka (fire element mythical fire flower) towards Zabuza in his moment of distraction to finally kill him once and for all. Kakashi seeing the attack evaded it via kawarimi, while Zabuza now angrier then raging dragon, deflected the fireballs with his giant kubikiri hocho towards Naruto's clone with much difficulty.

"Guess you finally learned something about survival brat, but now it's your teammate who is going to die by your own attack," laughed Zabuza.

"Damn it!" yelled Sasuke, as he realized his mistake.

"Shit, Naruto move out of the way!" yelled Sakura, who was horrified by the outcome.

Of course this only lasted a second till all four of them realized that it wasn't the real Naruto but another of his last of his shadow clone. This made all of them wonder where the real Naruto was. It would last long, as Zabuza felt the earth rumbling under him.

"Killed by friendly fire, me? Sorry no-eyebrows I am not the one confused here, you are and here is your present from the great underworld, my fist: shoryuuken (rising dragon fist)," yelled Naruto, as he burst from under the earth and hit Zabuza.

The move caught everyone by surprise once more as everyone found themselves fooled by the mischievous fox, but more so for his next phrase. Despite all his hard work and all the great planning and upon landing his punch, Zabuza wasn't still down, as Naruto learned the hard way that the man had a jaw of steel.

"Aie, my poor fist. What the hell did you put you chin you damn bastard, reinforced steel? I should start calling you steel-jaw now," insulted the boy.

"…" replied Sasuke and Sakura.

"Why you little piece of …" replied the angry Zabuza, as he was about to drop his sword on the boy only to be blocked by Kakashi and then hit with a spinning heel kick (wrestling move), which sent the Mist shinobi crash and slid on the ground in the opposite direction.

"Pieu, just in the nick of time, thanks a lot Kakashi-sensei. I seriously thought he was going to slice me this time. Just remember avoid hitting his jaw… I think I just broke my right hand thanks to it," said Naruto who was relieved to not feel Zabuza's giant sword on him.

"Hey, I got to keep my motto of protecting my comrades too, don't I? Nice plan Naruto and good application Sasuke and Sakura. You guys have grown up. Just next time, please avoid trying to get me killed along the bad guy, okay? I nearly got a heart attack this time. Now it's my time to take over, you guys have done enough, clear the area, this will become a very dangerous zone," replied Kakashi.

"Yes sir!" replied all three as they made and Tazuna in a jiff.

"Damn insects, you got lucky I got distracted and released the jutsu on your teacher…" said an angry Zabuza.

"Wrong, you didn't release it. You were forced to release it. It will teach you to not underestimate my kids. Now let's finish what we started I am getting tired of listening to your ugly voice," said Kakashi.

Thus round 2 between Hatake Kakashi and Momochi Zabuza started as both warriors locked their eyes on each other. While Sasuke and Naruto took a little breather both satisfied that they had proven their worth. Meanwhile, still hidden in the trees and unnoticed by the crew, a young boy looked on the battle from afar.

"_Those kids sure came up with a great plan… so many distraction I hardly noticed the ending till it was too late. Hmm, Zabuza-san you nearly got me worried there. I better get closer to you. The real battle is about to start… Hatake Kakashi doesn't seem to be the type to make the same mistake twice. I wonder what he will do. Will he finally show me the secret of the famous sharingan?"_ thought Haku, as he looked on.

* * *

End of chapter 5

* * *

A/N: All right, finally finished part 1 of 3 of the Wave country arc. Hope you enjoyed it. It took me 22 pages… (sigh). Anyway, as you can see I changed a lot of things here and there to change the flavor of the storyline from the original setting. It's also a bit bloodier then the original Manga. Get used to it, because I ended to make it add a bit more of that in the third part of this arc, which will hold the final battle between team 7 and Zabuza and Haku. Now you may be wondering what is up for the next chapter. Well I have been thinking a lot and I figured that it would be nice to have Naruto and Haku meet each other and build a friendship for about a week till they finally meet again in battle. It will make the ending even more memorable, especially what I intend to do with Kyuubi and Kyuubi Naruto. Just to add a few more things, as you can see I am trying divide the path between Naruto (light) and Sasuke (dark) already and I intend to keep doing it as the story progress. In won't be the only major conflict in this story. There will be another similar one between Naruto (light) and Kyuubi Naruto (dark). 

To end this note, I wanted ask the readers something. I have been thinking to add another arc in between the Wave arc, one that will develop team 7 for an even better setup for the Chuunin arc, an arc that displays more each characters conflict of interest. The problem is that I am confused weather I should add it in the WoF main storyline or simply make it a new story like a small movie and then briefly suggest it in the WoF to keep WoF, as much close to the Manga, as I can? Give me your point of views in the reviews. Before I forgot, please note that when I said (wrestling move) near a technique it means that you can find a description of it in wikipedia, under 'professional wrestling techniques'. R&R please and keep them coming, I need motivation you know? Shingen

* * *

**New Techniques**

Shoryuuken / Rising Dragon Fist: C rank taijutsu used by Naruto, where he comes out from under ground and hits his unsuspecting opponent with a straight rising uppercut on the chin. He actually copied it from Street Fighters. Later on given its effectiveness both Kakashi and Sasuke will use it.


End file.
